Gov't to slash 30,000 public sector workers by 2012: official

SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- The government is planning on cutting about 30,000
jobs at the nation's 305 state-run corporations and institutions by 2012, as part
of efforts to speed up public sector restructuring, a ranking official at the
presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.
The proposed staff reduction, if implemented, would affect about 11.6 percent of
some 259,000 public sector workers.
"Following the outbreak of the global economic crisis, a large-scale
restructuring is inevitable for a fresh takeoff of the South Korean economy,
apart from the job sharing scheme in the private sector," said the Cheong Wa Dae
official.
"Detailed payroll cuts in the public sector will be finalized by individual
corporations and institutions by the end of this month."
The ratio of job cuts will vary from 10 percent to 15 percent, depending on the
circumstances of the concerned entities, he noted.
Besides the workforce reduction, public corporations will be asked to take other
measures to downsize their organizations and improve business efficiency, he
said.
Since his inauguration in February, the Lee administration has striven to
overhaul the bloated structure of state-run enterprises and other public entities
accused of loose and inefficient management and wasteful spending of taxpayers'
money.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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