Presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in on Sunday pledged to create 12,000 new jobs in the public sector in the second half of this year, if elected Tuesday.

The candidate of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea envisions drawing up a 10 trillion won ($8.8 billion) supplementary budget to bankroll the new hiring. 

The plan envisions 1,500 new firefighters and the same numbers of newly hired social welfare workers and police officers to ease a chronic shortage of manpower in those field, the camp said.

There will be 3,000 new job openings for teachers, while the rest will be in various other public service areas.

“Candidate Moon aims to be a president who focuses on solving the current unemployment problem and aims to create 810,000 jobs centered on the public sector during his term” said Rep. Yun Ho-jung, chief policy maker for Moon’s election campaign during a press briefing in Yeouido.

Moon’s job policy includes creation of 174,000 civil service positions in national security and public safety, 340,000 in social services and transition of 300,000 nonregular workers to permanent employees, as well as reduced working hours.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)