STEM Fields Becoming Increasingly 'Precious'... Liberal Arts Graduates Sigh

6 out of 10 New Hires at Top 500 Korean Companies Are STEM Majors
Narrowing Job Market for Liberal Arts Graduates
Contrasts with High Demand and Low Supply of STEM Graduates
Large Major Gap Also Seen in Non-Economically Active 2030 Population
"Feeling 'Munsonghamnida'" - Job Seekers Express Anxiety
Experts Say "Education System Failing to Keep Up with Technological Changes Is the Root Cause"

The employment opportunities for young people who graduated from liberal arts universities are becoming increasingly limited.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] "'I’m sorry for being a liberal arts major' really resonates.", "I think I chose the wrong major dozens of times a day."

As the employment outlook diverges between graduates of liberal arts colleges such as language, literature, and sociology, and those from science and engineering fields, the worries of liberal arts students are deepening. Due to the nature of modern industries emphasizing digital technology not only in manufacturing but also in banking and advertising sectors, the space for liberal arts graduates is gradually shrinking. Experts point out that the rigid education system, which struggles to quickly respond to the ever-changing demands of the industry, needs to be reformed.

On the 6th, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) commissioned the polling agency 'Research & Research' to survey the top 500 domestic companies by sales on their '2022 First Half New Hiring Plans.' The results showed that 6 out of 10 new jobs in domestic companies are expected to be filled by science and engineering graduates. This was followed by humanities majors (36.7%) and other majors (2.3%).

Liberal arts students are expected to face a 'double hardship' of increasingly limited job opportunities coupled with growing competition. According to the FKI, among last year's graduates from four-year general universities, the proportion of science and engineering majors was 37.7%, while humanities majors accounted for 43.5%, about 5.8 percentage points higher.

In other words, while science and engineering students, whose job demand is high but supply limited, are increasingly treated as 'precious,' liberal arts students are required to endure much more intense competition.

The financial services industry, including banking, which was once considered a field open to graduates from liberal arts backgrounds, is increasingly favoring IT talent due to the acceleration of digital transformation. / Photo by Yonhap News

Liberal arts college graduates preparing for employment this year expressed anxiety, feeling there is no clear path to develop their careers.

A job seeker in their 20s, Mr. A, said, "Nowadays, no matter which industry you interview in, they always require coding-related certificates or portfolios," adding, "I have been a complete outsider in that area and have never studied it separately, so my confidence just drops."

Another job seeker, Mr. B, emphasized, "Students attending liberal arts colleges can never succeed in employment by focusing only on their major studies. Whether attending coding academies or pursuing double majors, they must prepare something else to showcase as a qualification," and added, "Honestly, unless you have a serious passion for language and literature or sociology, I wouldn’t recommend these majors to juniors."

It is not new that liberal arts graduates are at a disadvantage compared to science and engineering graduates in the job market, but recently their position has become even narrower.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, companies have actively adopted digital technologies and shifted to non-face-to-face services, leading to a preference for talents with IT-related skills such as coding, application (app) development, and data management not only in manufacturing but also in general service industries.

The non-economic activity population among the 2030 youth also showed significant disparities depending on their major. The photo shows office workers crossing a crosswalk. / Photo by Yonhap News

The 'gap' between liberal arts and science and engineering students is clearly reflected in Statistics Korea data. According to the 'Economically Active Population Survey Microdata' released by Statistics Korea in August last year, the number of economically inactive science and engineering graduates aged 20-39 was 362,000 at that time.

Economically inactive population refers to a group of unemployed people who have given up job searching or lack the ability or willingness to work, which can be interpreted as having practically given up looking for employment due to the inability to find a job.

In contrast, during the same period, the economically inactive population among humanities college and graduate school graduates was more than twice that of science and engineering graduates, reaching 841,000. This indicates a significant disparity in employment difficulty depending on college major even among young people of the same age group.

Liberal arts students not only find it difficult to prepare for employment but also tend to have significantly lower job quality compared to science and engineering students. According to the 'Monthly Labor Review, Employment Status of Higher Education Graduates' report published by the Korea Labor Institute in 2019, the employment rate of humanities job seekers was 56.0%, the lowest among all major fields. The average monthly starting salary was 2.2 million KRW, much lower than the overall average of 2.5 million KRW.

Experts point out that the root cause of the problems faced by job seekers lies more in the education system than in the economy.

Professor Kim Taegi of Dankook University’s Department of Economics said, "The employment rate gap between humanities and science and engineering graduates has already widened to a serious level, and this phenomenon has been ongoing for a long time. Since the global economic structure is shifting towards technology-centered industries, this is inevitable."

He continued, "The problem is that, due to the characteristics of Korea’s education system, private universities find it difficult to autonomously cultivate talents that meet the changing demands of companies," adding, "Issues arise because the Ministry of Education strictly controls university quotas and tuition fee increases. To prevent a 'mismatch' between young people newly entering the labor market and the workforce companies need, educational institutions must be allowed to respond more flexibly."

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