President Park Geun-hye on Friday called on labor and management to produce a compromise by March in the latest push to reform South Korea's rigid labor market.

   "The structural improvement of the labor market must be realized to resolve the issue of jobs for young people and non-regular workers," Park said in a meeting with top officials of labor and management as well as government officials in charge of economy and labor at the presidential office.

   She also warned that a new economic take-off, sustainable growth and social integration would be impossible unless structural problems of the labor market are addressed.

   Her comments came amid ongoing discussions between labor, management and government officials on how to resolve labor market duality as well as other pending issues, including pay, work hours and the retirement age.

   Park asked the leaders to produce a deal on labor market, saying it's an issue of now or never.

   One of the key issues of South Korea's labor market is a divide between regular workers and non-regular workers.

   Critics say regular workers are being overprotected, a development that causes some companies to shun recruitment and instead rely on non-regular workers that they can fire more easily.

   Earlier this month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 34 mostly rich nations, weighed in on the issue, saying that South Korea needs to break down its labor market duality to boost productivity and encourage more female employment.

   Labor market duality refers to the difference in pay and job security between regular and non-regular workers in the country.

   The OECD also said that South Korea needs to lessen protection for regular workers while enhancing rights and benefits for non-regular workers.

   The latest government data showed that the number of non-regular workers in Korea came to 6.08 million as of August, about 32.4 percent of the country's total salaried workers. It was the first time that the number of non-regular workers exceeded 6 million since related data started to be compiled in 2002. (Yonhap)