President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday to strengthen a state-administered insurance program for workers as part of efforts to stabilize the labor market.
 
Still, she did not give details on how to boost the role of employment insurance designed to provide unemployment insurance benefits up to eight months to eligible unemployed workers.

She made the comments in a video message to participants at a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the insurance program.
 
Park also renewed her calls for a compromise by labor, management and the government to overhaul such labor issues as labor market duality -- the difference in pay and job security between regular and non-regular workers.

Park's latest appeal comes as young South Koreans are struggling to find jobs as some companies shun recruitment and instead rely on non-regular workers that they can fire more easily.
 
In May, the jobless rate stood at 3.8 percent, down from 3.9 percent in April. The number, however, rose 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier. (Yonhap)