NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

The government held a Cabinet meeting Tuesday and finalized next year's budget of 604. 4 trillion won which is 8.3% more than this year. It marks the third straight year where total spending exceeds total revenue. The Finance Ministry presented policy goals for 2022 that include a complete termination of COVID-19, clear economic recovery, preemptive response to polarization, and infrastructure construction. It said that maintaining an expansionary fiscal policy is inevitable to fund resources toachieve the goals.
According to Labor Ministry data, the number of employed people at business entities hiring at least one worker recorded 18.8 million as of late July, up 1.5% on-year. The figure has been rising since March and the ministry attributes the growth to brisk exports and a base effect from last year. By sector, information and communications has posted the steepest growth of 8.8% while health and social welfare services also grew 5.5% in employee number. But the pandemic continues to deal a blow to the accommodation and restaurant sector whose workforce decreased 5.5% as well as arts, sports and leisure industries which posted a 2.6% decline.