현행 실업급여 제도에 대한 재검토

Abstract

The unemployment benefit system proved effective in South Korea during the 1997 financial crisis and the global financial crisis, triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, as it proved income support for people who lost their job. The unemployment benefit system has been refined to serve an important role in preventing unemployment and accelerating reemployment, in addition to the core objective of providing income for unemployed people. Despite the effective role of the unemployment benefit system, it is necessary to assess the system as a key element of social safety net as originally intended and its effects on reemployment of people receiving unemployment benefit. The system still has downside as a social safety net given that approximately 5 million laborers are uninsured for the benefit and that people who are voluntarily unemployed due to irresistible reasons such as illness are not entitled to the benefit. In addition, people who are not eligible for the benefit include those who failed to find a new job after receiving the benefit, young people seeking a job, those aged 65 or older who want a job, those who have an irregular employment status, those who want to return to the job market after resigning from the previous job voluntarily and those who run a self-employed business. Thus the exclusion of many groups makes it hard to see the unemployment benefit system as an instrument of social protection. The level of unemployment benefit also stir debates. It is therefore needed to investigate the benefit level and effects of the system on reemployment of the unemployed. The job market was hit hard by the financial crisis in 1997 and 2008. The economic crisis that began to loom in the European region in 2011 also pose a potential threat to job security. Although the job market is highly vulnerable to economic slowdown, the unemployment benefit is the only social security available for Korean people. To expand the system as a complete social safety net, the introduction of unemployment allowance seems necessary. This study suggests the direction of the unemployment benefit system that can fulfill the all objectives; stabilize living situation of the unemployed, redistribute wealth and promote reemployment.