Governments, policy-makers, scientists and medical professionals worldwide are confronting the severe health crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as addressing its social and economic ramifications. While the prospects for developing an effective remedy are on the horizon at the time of writing, lessons are emerging from country approaches to managing the crisis.
Korea stands out as a success, with early and decisive action in simultaneously keeping the disease at bay with innovative digital solutions for testing and symptom tracking, while avoiding a total lock-down of the economy. The government has introduced unprecedented measures to mitigate the pandemic’s impact, with supplementary budgets (voted or proposed) totalling about 3.5% of annual GDP, of which about 70% envisioned for being debt-financed, with the remainder funded through savings on government expenditure (OECD, 2020[7]). The supplementary budgets provide resources for the health sector, loans to SMEs, emergency support to households, assistance for severely hit industries and employment support.
Korea has played an important role as a leading exporter of medical test kits, having quickly built a successful export industry (20% rise in April alone). GVCs helped drive this innovation, although the crisis also highlighted the fragility of global health supply chains. A permanent slump in world trade is a downside risk. As an export-oriented economy, Korea is vulnerable to further weakness in foreign demand and to lasting disruptions in global value chains.
Strong and rapidly implemented fiscal and monetary policy measures to support households and businesses helped Korean economy to contract much less than other OECD economies in 2020. The projected contraction in GDP in 2020 is considerably milder than in other OECD countries. Real GDP in Korea is projected to decline by 1.0% in 2020 and to grow by 3.1% in 2021 (OECD, 2020[7]) compared to a projected fall in global GDP by 4.5% in 2020 and 5.0% in 2021.
Labour markets were disrupted by reductions in working hours, job losses and the enforced shutdown of businesses. The pandemic compounds pre-existing challenges, many of which are shared to various degrees by most OECD countries. Better mobilising labour resources, especially from women, older workers and youth, can partly counteract this trend, as well as help build a more inclusive economy and society. The rise in Korea’s unemployment rate has been modest at the onset of crisis, from 3.3% in February to 4.5% in May 2020; however, partly linked to low participation of women in the labour force. As in other OECD countries, the labour market recovery in Korea will be gradual until the end of 2021 (OECD, 2020[8]).
As in many OECD countries, the unemployment increase has also disproportionately affected non-regular workers. As shown in the OECD Employment Outlook (2020[8]), self-employed, temporary and part-time workers – for example – account for up to 40% of employment in the most affected sectors. The young are once again at risk of becoming the biggest casualties of the crisis: youth unemployment in the OECD jumped from 11.3% in February, to 16.7% in June. The COVID-19 outbreak has hit temporary and daily workers hard, with the number of temporary workers plunging by 501 000 in May 2020 (OECD, 2020[8]).
The uneven labour market impact of COVID-19 crisis may exacerbate already large income disparities in Korea. In the first quarter of 2020, the average monthly income of the lowest quintile households remained the same as the first quarter of 2019 while that of the highest quintile increased by 6.3% (OECD, 2020[1]). In response, the Korean government has introduced a range of measures to support employment, including an emergency employment security subsidy, relief checks (emergency disaster relief payments) to all households, emergency employment security subsidy for vulnerable workers, and increased subsidies for job retention scheme (OECD, 2020[8]). Going forward, Korean government’s efforts to strengthen social protection along with easing labour market regulations once the COVID-19 crisis is overcome would promote the reallocation of workers towards their most productive use and reduce labour market duality.