The Role and Change of the Employment Agency in the Japanese colonial era

Abstract

This study aims to examine how employment agencies changed and played a role during the colonial period. The first employment agency that appeared in colonial Joseon was the Incheon Christian Youth Association’s employment agency, which opened in 1911. The daily introduction performance of job agencies surged in the early 1930s, especially in some areas. The employment agency arranged workers for large-scale construction in the 1930s. Areas that received a lot of construction costs and areas with particularly high performance are consistent. It is also confirmed several times that large-scale construction has caused a surge in performance. In 1940, a legal system was established, but it did not provide sufficient personnel. Due to the lack of employment agencies, it was not possible to take charge of labor administration, and the number of employed people through employment agencies was small. In other words, the employment agency did not have much influence in Joseon.