◀ Anchor ▶
Ulsan is a representative industrial city where two large corporations, Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Heavy Industries, are located, right?
But in the past six years, 70,000 citizens have left the city.
It’s because of the lack of a job, but reporter Jeong In-gon covered what the circumstances were.
◀ Report ▶
Hyundai Motor Company decided to hire 700 regular production workers this year.
Ulsan, where the company is located, is agitated by the news of large-scale recruitment in 10 years.
[권대현/취업 준비생]
“First of all, I thought it was a dream job, and people from other regions as well as Ulsan were interested in applying there…”
However, once this public recruitment is over, it is difficult to know when the next recruitment will be.
The automobile industry is gradually moving toward electric vehicles, but electric vehicle factories require fewer workers, and there is a high possibility that the workforce making internal combustion engine vehicles will be shifted.
[이항구/한국자동차연구원 연구위원]
“Right now, I think about 30% of direct employment is less than internal combustion engine (vehicle factories).”
A technical education center located inside Hyundai Heavy Industries, another axis of Ulsan’s economy.
You can learn various skills such as welding, the basics of shipbuilding, as well as piping and painting.
Free lodging and education incentives are provided, and upon completion of the training, employees are immediately hired by an in-house partner.
However, last year, 500 people were barely filled with 1,000 people.
Compared to other occupations such as automobiles and petrochemicals, the wages are low and the labor intensity is high, so no one wants to work.
[현대중공업 퇴직자]
“If you look at the pay stub, everyone should shake their heads up and down. ‘This is enough. That’s enough for me.’ It’s supposed to be like this, but I’m shaking it from side to side, and people are shaking their heads… ‘What is this?’ is doing this”
The vacancies are filled by foreign workers.
Currently, 1,300 foreigners are working, and an additional 1,000 are expected to come in this year.
[조선 협력업체 대표]
“From my point of view, it is almost impossible to manage the shipbuilding industry with domestic manpower in the future. (Because the wage gap (with other industries) is too large…)”
In Ulsan, 69,000 people have left the city in the past six years.
Of these, more than half (38,000) were young people between the ages of 15 and 34.
This is Jung In-gon from MBC News.
Video coverage: Neungwan Kim / Ulsan
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