IMF 構造調整과 勞動市場 柔軟化

Abstract

With the passage of two turning points Korean labor market has become no longer conducive to foreign investors as well as domestic. Labor market rigidities prevented employers from exercising staffing authority in spite of high redundancy rate of over 9.3% in manufacturing industry. During last ten years real wages have gone up much higher than labor productivity. thus weakening the Korean industry's international competitiveness. This paper compares two contrasting models of labor market fluidity between the U.S. and Germany with regard to unemployment. unemployment duration. youth unemployment. propensity to be unemployed and re-employed. union penetration rate. bargaining structure. employment elasticity with respect to production. etc., It concludes that employment-security oriented German system would be amicable to marginal workers who are vulnerable to mass layoff or discharge. employers who might otherwise have to discharge their workers. and to politicians concerned about possible political repercussions of high unemployment. But it would only prolong duration of unemployment. and delay necessary industrial restructuring. American system on the other hand creates a social distress out of widening wage income inequality. though easier re-employment thanks to employment flexibility. If one is to choose between two evils of prolonged high unemployment and wider income inequality. one would be justified to pick the latter policy. It is. therefore. recommended that at macro level Korean labor market should be made much more flexible so as to be attractive to foreign investors as well as domestic. and at the micro level more rational way of layoff system be adopted and executed on the basis fair employee evaluation system.