MOEL discovers 100 new occupations and plans to create jobs through them

The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has discovered 100 new occupations that need to be considered for introduction in Korea or can be activated. It plans to select occupations with good prospects from among them and promote the selected occupations in consultation with other relevant government agencies.

At the cabinet meeting held on July 23rd (Tue.), MOEL announced a plan to discover and promote new occupations.
This is in accordance with the President's order to find professions existing in advanced countries but not in Korea and come up with a job-creation plan based on them.

The process of discovering and fostering new occupations is carried out in three stages: comparing and analyzing occupations in Korea and other countries; establishing a specific plan to discover and promote new occupations; and creating jobs through those occupations.

The first stage has now been completed. Since last April, MOEL and Korea Employment Information Service (Occupational Research Center) had conducted a study that compared and analyzed occupations in Korea and major advanced countries.
The total number of occupations listed in Korea's dictionary of occupational titles was 11,655 in 2011. The figure was relatively small compared to 30,654 occupations in the U.S. (2010) and 17,209 occupations in Japan (2011). So, it is true that there are many occupations existing in other countries but not in Korea.

However, a study by KEIS found that compared with Korea, the U.S. and Japan often subdivide occupational categories according to place of activity, skills, knowledge, required equipment, product, etc.

The U.S. and Japan cover 71.1% and 56.7% of all occupations, respectively.
As a result of examining occupations in the U.K., Germany and Australia as well as the U.S. and Japan, MOEL identified about 650 occupations that exist in those countries but not in Korea. From among them, more than 100 occupations that can be considered for introduction in Korea were selected.

Among occupations that can help the new government deliver its national agenda were travel assistant for disabled persons, business idea coordinator and tele-medicine coordinator.
Big data specialist, social media management specialist, digital undertaker, house stylist, etc., were selected as occupations that can realize a creative economy through convergence of existing occupations, such as IT and marketing.

Digital undertaker cleans up all the traces left on the internet by those who passed away.
House stylist helps people to sell their houses more easily and at a higher price by rearranging furniture, painting walls, properly placing flower pots, and so on.
Occupations that can create decent part-time jobs for career-break women and baby boomers included end-of-life planner, music therapist, suicide prevention counselor and mental health counselor (companion service).

With regard to the selected 100 occupations, MOEL will come up with a specific plan to discover and promote them in consultation with other government agencies in the second half of this year.

To that end, MOEL will set up a task force to discover and promote promising occupations. The consultative body will be headed by the Vice Minister of Employment and Labor and involve relevant government agencies.

The foreign occupations selected through the first screening process will be evaluated on how necessary and feasible it is to introduce them, and based on the evaluation, promising occupations to be introduced in Korea will be discovered and confirmed.
For occupations confirmed for introduction, promotion measures will be established including making institutional improvements and creating new qualifications and training courses.