Gig jobs see growing popularity in South Korea

As younger workers increasingly prefer flexibility in working hours, gig jobs have been growing popular in South Korea. 

There are about 220,000 people working as gig workers for online platforms, which account for 8.5% of the country’s total workers, according to a November 2021 report by South Korea’s labour ministry and Korea Employment Information Service.

South Korea’s top food delivery app operator, Baedal Minjok, said on Sunday that it has some 20,000 active contracted workers as of October 2021, double the number from December last year, writes Pulse news. 

Coupang, South Korea’s e-commerce giant has some 100,000 Coupang Flex contracted workers who deliver items to customers for the online marketplace operator. 

Services available for matching companies with gig workers for contract roles have also been increasing, due to the growing demand for gig jobs. 

READ: South Korea sees rise in job additions in 2020

For instance, Talent Bank — an online platform linking clients with workers for contract jobs in roles like website development and graphic design — saw matching requests rise from 368 in 2019, to 876 in 2020, according to the publication.