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뉴욕 타임즈(2009.07-07) 보도자료..........

어장일꾼의 상담과 채용 과정 및
조업 내용이 뉴욕에서 발간되는
미국의 일간신문 (뉴욕타임즈(NYT)에 
보도 되었습니다.

어장일꾼 관련 부분 발췌.........

Labor experts say the number of former office
workers who are moving into blue-collar jobs has
increased as South Korea has suffered its worst
unemployment since the 1997 Asian currency
crisis.

According to the National Statistical Office,
the unemployment rate has risen to 3.8 percent
 — low by American standards,
but high for this Asian economic powerhouse.

Many of the unemployed can rely on traditional
forms of economic support, like living with
family.

And despite the slowdown, jobs are still to be
found in this prosperous society,
where the neon-lit bustle of cities like Seoul
has not missed a beat.

Still, Jeong Seung-beom, whose small Seoul-based
firm helps recruit workers for South Korea
fishing industry,
says that this year is the busiest he has seen,
even better than 1997, when white-collar workers
also flooded his office.

He said his company, the Sea Job Placement
Center, now places about 80 people a month,
four times the number a year ago.

Mr. Jeong said most of the new recruits were
laid-off office workers or university students
who could no longer afford tuition.

Many of the newcomers are so woefully unprepared
for the physical demands of fishing, he said,
he tries to scare them during orientation essions.

On a recent morning in his cramped office,
six young men showed up with gym bags, ready to
make the trip to Kunghang, near the nation’
southwest tip.

Among them was Mr. Lee, the former condominium
developer.

Mr. Jeong warned them that they might get seasick
or homesick, or even be injured or killed on the
crab boats, which can spend14 hours a day at sea.

When he paused for questions,
one man in his 20s asked if he could go home
during holidays.

“Crabs don’t take holidays,” Mr. Jeong scoffed.

Undaunted,all six went to Kunghang later that day.

Mr. Lee said he decided to fish because he could
make about $1,700 a month, much more than he
could earn in Seoul pouring lattes or busing
tables.

The high salaries stem from the chronic labor
shortages in these occupations during the boom
years when South Koreans shunned them as too
dirty,leaving them to Asian migrant laborers.