The government said Wednesday it will aggressively push the public sector to adopt peak wages for workers within this year as part of an ongoing effort to create more job opportunities for young people.
  

Public corporations and state-run organizations that adopt peak wages early will receive higher marks in their performance evaluations, an official said, adding they will also be given incentives when it comes time to negotiate annual wage hikes.
  

If public companies accept wage peaks for workers, this can help create some 8,000 jobs in the next two years, they said.
  

According to the finance ministry, out of the 316 public corporations and organizations, only 11 have adopted the peak wage system as of early this month.
  

In a nationally televised address to the nation on Thursday, President Park Geun-hye also urged sweeping structural reforms in the public sector.
  

The peak wage system advocated by the government calls for the retirement age of workers to be pushed back, which will give these people greater job security. The same people benefiting from this will have to accept lower wages just before retirement, with the money saved by this arrangement to be used to hire new employees.
  

Job creation particularly for young people has become a pressing matter with the jobless rate among people between ages 15 and 29 reaching 9.4 percent in July, much higher than the 3.7 percent national average.
  

"Public companies will be required to submit reports on how many new people they can hire with the money they save by introducing the wage peak system within the month, with the government to provide support for such people,"
  

In addition, the government said it will push for the streamlining of 87 public corporations and organization in social overhead capital, agrofisheries and the culture and art fields, which can save upwards to 7.6 trillion won ($6.43 billion) in taxpayers' money.
  

Besides this, Seoul aims to reorganize its research and development, energy, healthcare, policy financing, and environment-related organizations within the year.
  

The government, meanwhile, said in the areas of fiscal reform, it will take tough action against unlawful state subsidy recipients and aggressively slash state-funded projects that have failed to meet expectations.
  

It said 600 related projects will be merged or scrapped altogether by the year's end as part of the public sector reform drive. (Yonhap)