Korean Occupational Index (2011)
Sang-Geun Han, Cheon soo Park, Yun-Kyung Jeong, Hea-Jung Chang, Na-Ra Kim
The occupational index developed in this study covers labor market information such as employment, wages, the ratio of full-time positions, and the qualitative properties of occupations (e.g., employment stability, career growth prospects, professionalism, etc.).
This study consists of five major stages: the construction of a framework for the occupational index analysis, the conduct of a survey based on the Korean occupational index, the examination of the results and issues, the development of a policy agenda based on the results, and the presentation of the occupational index and policy agenda. The methods used during these stages include data survey and analysis, an experts conference, an occupational index survey, statistical analysis, and the holding of a seminar.
This project will unfold over a 5-year period. During the present year, which constitutes the first year of the project, we have carried out an index survey of the engineering, construction, and production occupations, and analyzed the pertinent issues based on the results. The questionnaire for occupation experts is composed of fundamental index and application index items. The fundamental index items consist of seven evaluation areas (2 - 6 questions respectively, total 23 questions), namely compensation, employment prospects, employment stability, career growth prospects, working conditions, professionalism, and employment equality. The application index items consist of re-entry prospects, academic ability, job sameness, core competency, and newborn occupations.
We summarized the results of the Korean occupation index based on the fundamental index. The fundamental index consists of basic information with which to understand the properties of occupations and to help people to choose jobs First, we explained the results of the descriptive statistics associated with the fundamental index at the present time, and described the results of the cross analysis between the major parts. Thereafter, we examined the occupations expected to have a
higher or lower occupational index 10 years from now.
While the results show that petrochemical technicians and researchers currently have the highest occupational index, computer system/network security specialists are expected to have the highest occupational index 10 years down the road.
FGI was used in this study to compensate for the results of the occupational index and understand the world of work in a more in-depth fashion. Several common characteristics can be identified in terms of the occupations expected to be better 10 years down the road.
First, environmental issues and strict regulations will have the effect of raising the index for certain occupations. Here, environmental engineers in the fields of water and air pollution can be identified as examples of such occupations.
Second, occupations that can meet higher value-added business expectations showed greater prospect. Bio-engineers, food technologists, textile engineers are some of the primary occupations that will produce higher values.
Third, in terms of essential human resources, several occupations will become more valued because of the scarcity of the available labor. The growing automation of production processes will have the effect of putting persons who possess know-how about automated systems in high demand. Metalplaters and chemical process/production occupations can be identified as salient examples.
Finally, automation will also improve the outlook for certain occupations. The demand for mechanical engineering occupations will continue to grow in concert with the trend towards the automation of industries.
