코로나19로 고용 충격...대면 접촉이 많은 서비스업 집중<br /><br /> South Korea is facing severe economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.<br />The country has seen its highest job losses since the global financial crisis and majority of them are in service industries which require human contact.<br />Our Eum Ji-young has more. <br />With consumers staying home because of the virus, one restaurant owner in Seoul says she had to reduce the number of workers at her restaurant.<br /><br />"Before the outbreak, we had 10 to 12 employees at the restaurant but these days there's only 5 people including myself."<br /><br />An expert says labor costs take up about 16 percent of a restaurant's total expenses, but as rent and food costs are not adjustable, owners inevitably end up laying off staff instead.<br /><br />"More than 2 million people work in the food and service industry and about 30 percent of workers are non-regular staff. So about 600-thousand people are currently facing job insecurity."<br /><br /> South Korea lost 195-thousand jobs last month,... the largest year-on-year drop in almost eleven years.<br />And the service sector, which requires face-to-face interaction, saw the biggest drop in jobs. <br /> 168-thousand jobs were lost on-year in the wholesale and retail industries. The restaurant and lodging sectors saw a fall of 109-thousand jobs last month. <br /><br />The number of people who are temporarily out of work also hit a new record of about 1-point-6 million people last month and one third of them were in those service industries.<br /><br />"South Korea's educational service sector was also hit hard by the outbreak. Private educational institutes or hagwon were advised to close temporarily as part of social distancing efforts."<br /><br />An owner of a private institute in Seoul says classes have been halted since late February and the teachers at the institute have been on unpaid leave.<br /><br />"Many 'hagwons' are considering shutting down because of the direct hit to sales. Our institute have reduced teacher numbers by one third as the COVID-19 outbreak is expected to continue."<br /><br /> He said stringent qualifications and complicated procedures make it difficult for business owners to get support from the government.<br />Eum Ji-young, Arirang News. <br />
