"'Needle's Eye' Job Market... 66% of Young Job Seekers Give Up Job Hunting"

Hankyung Research Institute, 2021 Survey on University Students' Employment Perceptions

Data provided by Korea Economic Research Institute

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] A survey revealed that seven out of ten young job seekers have practically given up on job hunting, showing little active effort in seeking employment amid the 'needle's eye' job market.

On the 12th, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) under the Federation of Korean Industries announced the results of a 2021 university student employment perception survey conducted on 2,713 third- and fourth-year students and graduates from four-year universities nationwide. According to the results, 65.3% of respondents, or about six to seven out of ten, were found to be in a state of practically giving up on job seeking.

The proportion of those practically giving up on job seeking includes responses indicating ▲hardly any job search activity (33.7%), ▲going through the motions (23.2%), and ▲taking a break (8.4%). Only about one in ten respondents (9.6%) reported actively engaging in job search activities.

The most common reason for not actively seeking jobs was ▲feeling the need to prepare more due to a lack of personal capabilities, skills, or knowledge (64.9%). This was followed by ▲a shortage of jobs in their major or fields of interest (10.7%), ▲a belief that they would not find a job even if they searched (7.6%), and ▲a lack of jobs with suitable wage levels or working conditions (4.8%). Among other opinions (9.6%), most cited 'uncertainty about career path.'

KERI expressed concern, stating, "Young people are increasingly losing confidence in their employability amid fierce job competition, leading to a decline in their job search confidence. This will delay young people's entry into the labor market and result in a reduction of future growth engines."

"Six out of ten university students find employment harder than last year... intensified competition due to reduced hiring"

58.6% of university students responded that the environment for new college graduate recruitment this year is 'more difficult than last year.' This is 2.8 times the proportion who said it was 'similar to last year' (21.3%) and 29.3 times those who said it was 'better than last year' (2.0%). When comparing the difficulty of job hunting by half-year periods, 42.7% of university students expected the job market to worsen in the second half of the year compared to the first half. Only 2.6% responded that it would be better than the first half. KERI noted, "Due to the recent resurgence of COVID-19, uncertainty in the real economy's recovery has increased, and the cold spell in the job market is expected to continue."

Regarding difficulties in the job preparation process due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the most cited reason was 'intensified competition for entry due to reduced hiring opportunities' (29.3%). This was followed by 'difficulty securing practical experience opportunities such as experiential internships' (23.9%), 'psychological contraction including anxiety, depression, and lowered self-esteem' (18.2%), and 'increased economic burden of job preparation due to a decrease in short-term jobs' (16.2%).

Data provided by Korea Economic Research Institute

Active job seekers apply an average of 6.2 times with 1.6 document screening passes on average
Even passing document screening is difficult
Preferred employers: public enterprises > large corporations > … > small and medium enterprises

According to KERI, university students actively seeking jobs this year applied an average of 6.2 times, with an average of 1.6 document screening passes, indicating a document screening pass rate of 25.8%. Specifically, the number of applications this year was ▲1?5 times (60.2%), ▲6?10 times (14.2%), ▲11?15 times (6.1%), ▲16?20 times (5.4%), and ▲21?25 times (3.4%). The number of document screening passes was ▲all rejected (20.7%), ▲once (22.6%), ▲twice (16.1%), ▲three times (12.3%), and ▲four times (4.6%).

The companies university students hope to work for were surveyed as public enterprises (18.3%), large corporations (17.9%), government/public officials (17.3%), mid-sized companies (17.1%), small and medium enterprises (11.9%), foreign companies (8.6%), and financial institutions (3.4%).

In contrast, the companies where students expect to actually find employment were small and medium enterprises (30.1%), mid-sized companies (20.9%), government/public officials (15.2%), public enterprises (10.7%), large corporations (7.2%), and foreign companies (4.4%). Compared to last year, the expected employment proportion for small and medium enterprises increased the most by 5.1 percentage points from 25.0% to 30.1%, while public enterprises decreased the most by 5.3 percentage points (from 16.0% in 2020 to 10.7% in 2021).

Choo Kwang-ho, head of KERI's Economic Policy Office, emphasized, "Amid narrowing job opportunities, most young people lose confidence or fail to find desired jobs, leading to a lack of active job search activities. The fundamental and only solution is to expand companies' employment capacity through deregulation and enhancing labor flexibility."

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