농업인력 실태와 농업인력 정책 시사점

(Current Condition and Policy Implication of Korean Agricultural Labor)

The purpose of this study was to examine actual conditions of Korean agricultural labor and suggest policy implications to address problems found in the examination. Korean agriculture faces labor force problems such as 1) mismatch between labor supply and demand, 2) evasion of agricultural work by labor brokering companies near to rural area 3) high dependency on foreign workers, 4) low supply of foreign workers, and 5) agricultural labor market disturbance by the Projet Hope, a public work program. However, these problems were fundamentally caused by seasonality of labor demand, shortage of new entrants of agricultural labor, and relatively low wage of the employed workers. For the basic problems specific policy suggestions were made. This study conducted telephone and mail surveys on local opinion leaders (850 people), farmers (1960 people) and labor brokering companies near to rural area (500 companies) to examine the current situation of Korean agricultural labor. Authors also conducted interviews on some agribusiness CEOs about the agricultural labor problems.