Daejeon City announced a significant easing of application criteria for its '2025 Small Business Labor Cost Support Program' to assist local small business owners struggling with rising labor costs. With this revision, major restrictions such as annual sales, the number of supported personnel, and beneficiary history have all been abolished, effectively lowering the barrier for almost all small businesses in Daejeon to receive benefits. This move is seen as a testament to Daejeon City's strong commitment to supporting small businesses, reflecting the changing employment environment and voices from the field.

Landmark Relaxation of Support Criteria

The core of this institutional overhaul is the substantial dismantling of existing barriers to entry for the support program.

Abolition of Annual Sales Limit: The previous 'annual sales of 300 million KRW or less' eligibility criterion has been fully expanded, meaning all small businesses within the Daejeon area, regardless of their sales volume, can now apply for support. This is expected to be welcome news for a considerable number of small business owners who were previously excluded due to their revenue.
Abolition of Supported Personnel Limit: The limit of supporting a maximum of two employees per business has been removed, allowing for flexible support based on the actual scale of employment. This is expected to provide greater assistance to small businesses that employ a larger number of workers.
Abolition of Participation History Limit: The previous system that restricted re-application for those who had participated in the program within the last two years has also been revised, allowing for repeated benefits. This measure aims to help small businesses that require continuous support maintain stable operations.
Support Details and Application Method
Eligible businesses for this program are small business owners who have newly hired workers aged 18 or older (born before January 1, 2007) between January 1, 2025, and September 10, 2025. If these employees are continuously employed for more than three months and maintain their 4대 Social Insurance enrollment, businesses can receive 1.5 million KRW per hired employee in labor cost support.

Applications are open until November 28, 2025. Detailed information regarding the program can be found in the announcement posted on the Daejeon Small and Medium Business Support Portal, 'Daejeon Biz' (www.djbea.or.kr/biz). For other inquiries, please contact the Daejeon Job and Economy Promotion Agency (☎042-380-3063).

Kwon Kyung-min, Director-General of Daejeon City's Economy Bureau, stated, "This institutional improvement is a result of reflecting the changing employment environment and voices from the field." He added, "We will continue to implement effective policies to help more small businesses achieve management stability." Attention is now focused on whether Daejeon City's unprecedented relaxation of labor cost support policies will positively impact the management stability and employment revitalization of local small businesses.

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