Public agencies plan to expand graduate hiring by 44 percent next year to help ease youth unemployment and encourage corresponding efforts in the private sector, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said a total of 14,400 new jobs will be created across 285 public agencies next year, up from about 10,000 for this year. It decided to increase jobs set aside for high school graduates from 3.4 percent to 20 percent next year, in a decision to encourage private firms to follow the move.

“It is part of our overall plans to upgrade services at public institutions. We will cut unnecessary workers but expand jobs where more manpower is needed,” Koo Bon-jin, chief of the ministry’s public finances told reporters.

“With business sentiment set to lose momentum next year, job expansion in the public sector should encourage others to follow suit,” Koo said.

The welfare and labor sectors will hire a combined 5,267 workers, up from 3,146 hires for this year. The energy and manufacturing sectors will hire 3,331 workers.

The infrastructure sector and financial agencies will add 2,297 and 1,461 jobs each, up 98.7 percent and 113 percent from this year. Public agencies will host a joint job fair at COEX, Seoul, on Dec. 19-20.

Seoul National University Hospital plans to hire the most, 1,345, as nurses and administrations staff, followed by Korea Electric Power Corp., with 763 hires. The Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Land & Housing Corp., and Korea Railroad will take 763, 598 and 412 graduates each.

The unemployment outlook for next year from local think tanks came in at 3.7 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than estimated for this year.

Large corporations are widely expected to cut back investment and recruitment next year with slowing exports and weakening consumer demand. The government forecast that 280,000 new jobs will be created next year, down almost 30 percent from the 400,000 figure estimated for this year. The growth forecast from the central bank and the government is 3.7 percent.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)