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Interview with Lee Jong-sung, Chairman of the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled
“While the employment rate for people with disabilities is gradually increasing, achieving significant improvement going forward will be difficult.”
Lee Jong-sung, Chairman of the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled, identified the causes of stagnant employment for people with disabilities not in short-term economic factors but in demographic shifts and changes in the labor market during an interview with Asia Today on the 19th. He stated, “The working-age population is shrinking, the proportion of elderly people with disabilities is increasing, and the population of people with disabilities itself is being restructured to focus on those with severe and developmental disabilities,” adding, “There are limits to expanding employment using the same methods as in the past.”
The current employment rate for people with disabilities remains at about two-thirds of the overall labor market employment rate. Chairman Lee pointed out, “Not only is the employment rate itself low, but the bigger problem is quality. As the proportion of people with severe disabilities increases, simple job placement or a numbers-based approach is unsustainable.” He further emphasized, “Now, the key tasks are job design and competency enhancement that consider the period after employment.”
He also addressed the effectiveness of the mandatory employment system. While the overall average employment rate for people with disabilities last year was 3.21%, slightly exceeding the private sector’s mandatory rate (3.1%), the rate for large corporations with 1,000 or more employees was only 2.97%. Chairman Lee stated, “It’s actually SMEs that employ more, and large corporations are dragging down the average,” adding, “We must clearly address the reality that companies with greater financial capacity tend to be more passive about hiring people with disabilities.”
He proposed tailored employment consulting for large corporations as a solution. The agency is expanding its consulting services, which analyze corporate work processes to identify suitable roles by disability type and provide support through the adaptation phase after hiring. Chairman Lee explained, “It’s crucial to address each point where companies feel vague burdens,” adding, “Rather than finding tasks people with disabilities cannot do, we need an approach that designs roles they can perform.”
*Please note this is a Korean article
Source: Asia Today
