77% of Vocational High School Graduates Last Year Maintain Employment 6 Months Later

Ministry of Education Announces Employment Retention Rate Survey Results
Meister High Schools Lead with 82.1%

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Last year, 77.3% of vocational high school graduates maintained their employment status for six months after getting a job.

On the 31st, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the 2020 vocational high school graduates' employment retention rate survey. The employment retention rate refers to the proportion of employed individuals as of April 1 who remained employed as of October 1. Employment status was based on enrollment in health insurance or employment insurance.

The Ministry of Education restructured the employment statistics survey system by utilizing a public database to analyze the qualitative aspects of employment through the employment retention rate and to establish future employment support policies for vocational high schools.

Among the 2020 vocational high school graduates, the employment retention rate by school type was highest for Meister High Schools. Meister High Schools had 82.1%, Specialized High Schools 76.6%, and General High School vocational classes 74.1%.

Analyzing the employment retention rate by school location, Seoul (81.7%), Daejeon (80.8%), Incheon (79.6%), and Gyeonggi (78.3%) were higher than the average (77.3%). The employment retention rate of schools located in metropolitan cities (79.3%) was higher than that of schools located outside metropolitan cities (75.7%).

The Ministry of Education plans to announce this year's employment rate survey for vocational high school graduates in October. They intend to stabilize the existing public DB linkage and seek new databases that can be linked, such as the National Tax Service and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, to comprehensively understand employment information for high school graduates.

The employment retention rate will be surveyed three times: after 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months, and will analyze actual employment changes by investigating retention rates by work region and business size.

Kim Ilsu, Director of Vocational Education Policy at the Ministry of Education, said, "The employment retention rate is a meaningful indicator to confirm the qualitative level of jobs that vocational high school graduates enter. We empathize with concerns on the ground that youth employment has become more difficult due to COVID-19, and we will actively cooperate with related ministries to discover good jobs where high school graduates can work."

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