Busan is good

Busan Metropolitan City Wins National Local Government Job Awards for Fourth Consecutive Year!

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, announced that it received an Excellence Award, presented by the Minister of Employment and Labor, in the Local Job Creation Target Disclosure System category at the 2026 National Local Government Job Awards ceremony. The event, hosted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, was held at 2:00 p.m. yesterday, August 19, in the International Conference Hall of the Korea Press Center in Seoul.

The Local Job Creation Target Disclosure System, administered by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, is a strategy for revitalizing local employment under which local governments establish and publicly announce employment targets for their residents. The central government supports the smooth implementation of local employment measures and provides incentives to local governments that demonstrate outstanding performance.

The National Local Government Job Awards is a program through which the Ministry of Employment and Labor comprehensively evaluates the employment policies and achievements of local governments nationwide and selects and honors outstanding local governments. It is regarded as a key indicator of the performance of local government employment policies.

Following its Grand Prize in 2020, Busan Metropolitan City has now won an award for four consecutive years from 2023 through this year.

Institutional award record: 2020 Grand Prize; 2021 Excellence Award; 2023 Excellence Award; 2024 Special Award; 2025 Metropolitan Government Grand Prize; 2026 Excellence Award.

Busan Metropolitan City received favorable evaluations for implementing a broad range of employment and labor policies last year despite difficult economic conditions. These efforts ranged from expanding locally specialized jobs, increasing jobs in innovative growth sectors, building a foundation for future jobs, and identifying customized employment opportunities by generation to strengthening protection of vulnerable workers’ rights, including expanding rest shelters for mobile workers during extreme heat.

Through the Regional Innovation Project and the Plus Project, the city created 1,090 jobs in the tourism and MICE and shipbuilding equipment industries. Through an employment slowdown response support program, it also supported employment stability for 1,345 workers in the automotive parts industry.

Busan Metropolitan City established the Busan Artificial Intelligence Strategy and launched the Artificial Intelligence Committee. It also trained 1,752 people through the Busan Digital Innovation Academy (BDIA). In addition, the city selected and supported a total of 106 companies, including leading companies, hidden champions, and globally competitive SMEs.

In 2025, the city attracted KRW 8 trillion in private-sector investment, laying a foundation for revitalizing the local economy and creating jobs. It also implemented the first-year projects of the Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) initiative and achieved Glocal University selections for the third consecutive year.

To provide systematic support for technology startups, the city also established the Busan Startup Investment Agency, the first such institution in the country, and attracted 11 investment firms from the Seoul metropolitan area to Busan.

In addition, through customized employment support for different target groups, the city provided a total of 104,373 tailored jobs for vulnerable groups, including young people, women, middle-aged and older adults, persons with disabilities, and foreign nationals.

Across all publicly funded employment programs, the city achieved 206,023 jobs, or 107 percent of its target of 192,805.

The city also stepped up the operation of its support center for mobile and platform workers, expanded temporary winter shelters for mobile workers, established additional permanent shelters, and strengthened safety inspections at small workplaces, thereby promoting labor rights protection and improvements in working conditions.

Busan’s key employment indicators also showed improvement.

The employment rate among people aged 15 to 64 reached an all-time high of 68.1 percent. The number of permanent employees exceeded 1 million for the first time in June 2025, representing an 11.4 percent increase compared with the three-year average.

The number of employed women also reached a record high of 773,000, while youth employment indicators showed improvement, including a decline in the number of people without jobs and an increase in the number of wage earners.

Building on this award, Busan Metropolitan City plans to continue implementing employment policies focused on resolving employment mismatches, expanding quality jobs in strategic industries, broadening the innovative-growth industrial ecosystem, and creating customized jobs for different target groups.

Mayor Chun Jae-soo said, “This award is the result of the combined efforts of Busan Metropolitan City, local businesses, and our citizens. We will continue to pursue employment policies that make a tangible difference in people’s lives and build a Busan filled with quality job opportunities.”