This paper aims to suggest grounds for contending that paradigms of policies for alleviating unemployment in Korea should be changed in light of the fact that overemphasis on unemployment policies under the current unemployment level only contributes to price hikes and wage increase rather than to the long-term stability of the labor market. For this purpose, the equilibrium rate of unemployment was estimated using Kalman filter by adapting Kuttner’s(1994) model into the unemployment rate segregation and a state-space model. The estimation found that the equilibrium rate of unemployment in 2006 was 3.4%, which was close to the actual unemployment rate of 3.3%. Based on the analysis, we propose that under the current level of unemployment rate the focus of current paradigms of policies should be changed from merely addressing the issue of unemployment to emphasizing strategic measures such as nurturing high-level manpower including scientific and technology workforce and professional workers.