창작과 불안정성의 사이에서: 프리랜서 예술인의 모호한 실업 상태와 고용보험의 부정합성

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of freelance artists' labor and their unemployment experiences to identify mismatches with the current artists' employment insurance system. Starting from the fundamental question “What does unemployment mean to artists?”, it explores how the current employment insurance system diverges from the realities of artistic labor. The study analyzed the insurance system's content and conducted in-depth interviews with 12 freelance artists from four fields: broadcasting, visual arts, publishing, and performing arts. The results revealed that artistic labor is characterized by heterogeneous compensation structures, unstable income patterns, ambiguous employment relationships, and an overlap between creative and paid labor. Artists' unemployment states were categorized into three types: ‘income loss unemployment’, ‘job loss unemployment’, and ‘continuation of unpaid labor’. Major points of mismatch included exclusion from insurance due to the lack of written contracts, difficulties in proving income reduction, and inadequacy of unemployment recognition criteria. In conclusion, this study argues that for artists, unemployment should be understood as a state where the sustainability of creative activities is threatened, and that a social security system reflecting this understanding needs to be established. This research provides important implications not only for artists' labor rights but also for social security challenges facing non-standard workers.