South Korea has expanded the scope of its employment insurance coverage to include more categories under gig and educational workers.
According to a news report in Chosunbiz, country’s labour ministry has issued an advance notice with a draft decree that will extend employment insurance coverage to workers in four job categories. The advance notice was issued on 22 July 2026 and will be open for public comments till 31 August 2026.
The draft decree includes cross recruiters (planners who can recruit for both life insurance and non-life insurance) and recruiters for credit unions and the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives (KFCC) mutual aid.
In the education category, the draft includes instructors for specialised after-school programmes at kindergartens and instructors for special activity programmes at daycare centres.
In the parcel delivery driver category, drivers handling deliveries that involve furniture installation under the Act on Consumer Logistics Services have been added, and in the credit card membership recruiter category, affiliate recruiters are included.
At present the employment insurance covers
- Insurance planners
- After-school instructors
- Parcel delivery drivers
- Credit card membership recruiters
It was felt that the scheme included too few categories, hence the amended legislation has been brought up. Th South Korean labour ministry expects to add 17,000 more members to the amended employment insurance.