68.6% of Youth Say They Are Likely to Work for SMEs in the Future

Youth Perception Survey on Employment in Small and Medium Enterprises
Calls for Improvement in Work Environment, Welfare, and Surrounding Infrastructure

Two out of three young people think it is likely to get a job at a small and medium-sized enterprise. Graph = Provided by the Korea Federation of SMEs

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Two out of three young people believe they are likely to get a job at a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The youth surveyed indicated that working hours are the most important factor when deciding on employment.

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced on the 24th the results of the "Youth Perception Survey on Employment at SMEs," conducted with 700 young job seekers.

Regarding preferences for employment, young people hoped to work in public enterprises (55.0%), large corporations (51.4%), mid-sized companies (41.0%), and SMEs (33.7%) in that order. However, when asked about the companies where they realistically see the highest possibility of employment, the responses were SMEs (68.6%), mid-sized companies (61.0%), public enterprises (29.4%), and large corporations (17.6%), indicating that SMEs are perceived as having the highest employment potential.

When seeking jobs at SMEs, the most needed information was work-life balance guarantee (73.7%) and starting salary level (70.1%). The most important factors considered when deciding on employment were "working hours (78.4%)," "commuting transportation (70.7%)," and "regular employment (55.9%)," showing many responses mentioning work environment and external infrastructure.

Young job seekers hope for an average monthly salary of 2.56 million KRW in their first year at an SME and responded that they should receive at least 2.17 million KRW. Regarding the job market within the next year, 40.9% answered that it will become "more difficult," and 56.9% said it will be "similar to the current situation," expecting continued employment difficulties.

When searching for information related to SME employment, young people reported difficulties such as "difficulty understanding corporate culture or atmosphere (38.9%)," "difficulty knowing the scope and nature of work (34.9%)," and "unclear salary levels (34.7%)."

Despite answering that SMEs have the highest employment possibility, young people’s image of SME employment was negative regarding salary and job stability, with 39.6% perceiving "SMEs have a lot of work but low salary levels," and 25.1% believing "job stability may be lower when employed at SMEs."

Lee Taehee, Head of the Smart Job Division at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "As the employment cliff for young people intensifies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social prejudice viewing SMEs negatively may worsen the job mismatch problem. We will promote various awareness improvement projects to help people properly understand SME jobs." He added, "We plan to jointly provide with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups the 'Good SME Job Platform' service within this year, allowing young job seekers to easily check information on salary levels, organizational culture, welfare benefits, and other SME job details at a glance."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.