GOV’T PROJECT TO HELP PUBLIC FIND JOBS

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The Ministry of Labor is carrying out a project to help the public find jobs. To fabricate their work performance, job consultants stole personal information of scores of users including the deceased.

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​In 2019 the Ministry of Labor carried out an investigation into fabricated results of a government-funded employment network. It was revealed that job consultants used personal info of the deceased to register them as job-seekers between 2017 and 2019. Some 1,500 consultants were found to have fabricated data. More than 12,000 job requests were registered under the names of deceased people. Some 970 of them were marked as “employed.” The job consultants first obtained personal information of seniors registered at state-funded jobs. They continued to use it even after their passing to exaggerate work performance. They took advantage of an employment program where job-seekers can personally insert their applications and the result of their job search activities, unlike recruitment programs where job consultants must provide further details on who they helped to find employment and where. The Ministry of Labor concluded the job consultants fabricated their work performance en masse, and pledged to overhaul regulations so that their work performance is only based on how many people they help become employed. The ministry requested police investigations into 241 job consultants, and issued warnings to 324 others. However, it has come under fire for not disclosing the results of its internal probe in 2019.