[Provided by Yeongdeok-gun]
[Provided by Yeongdeok-gun]

Yeongdeok-gun in North Gyeongsang Province won an excellence award in the local employment target disclosure category at the 2026 National Local Government Employment Awards, hosted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor at the Korea Press Center on Wednesday.

The county received high marks across all evaluation criteria, including planning, implementation, outcomes and feedback.

Despite employment instability caused by a large wildfire that broke out in late March last year, the county achieved 100.9 percent of its employment rate target and 103.7 percent of its employment insurance subscriber target.

Particularly notable was the "Welcome Youth" project, which encompassed startup support for young residents, relocation assistance for youth-run businesses from outside the region, shared youth housing and a month-long local experience program. The initiative was credited with helping counter population decline and regional depopulation.

Those efforts produced strong results in youth employment indicators: the youth employment rate rose 12.4 percent from the previous year, and the rate of youth population decline improved by 8.24 percentage points.

"This is the result of actively pursuing employment policies tailored to the characteristics of local industries and the needs of residents," county chief Jo Ju-hong said. "We will expand settlement conditions that make young people want to stay, build an industrial ecosystem that supports business growth, and create sustainable jobs linked to future industries."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com