36% of University Students Prepare for Employment Over a Year... 65% of Graduates Give Up Job Seeking

29.6% of University Students Respond That This Year's New Hiring Environment Is 'More Difficult Than Last Year'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The majority of young job seekers expect their job preparation period to last more than a year, and the proportion of youth who have effectively given up job hunting reaches 65.8%, revealing a bleak employment environment as perceived by young people.

According to the '2022 University Student Employment Perception Survey' conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on 2,469 students and graduates (or expected graduates) from four-year universities nationwide on the 23rd, 7 out of 10 university students (66.3%) responded that the job preparation period would take ‘more than six months.’ Among them, 36.4% anticipated it would take ‘more than one year.’

Regarding difficulties in the job preparation process, the most frequently cited issue was ▲reduced opportunities for new hires due to preference for experienced workers (28.2%). This was followed by ▲a shortage of good jobs matching desired working conditions (26.0%), ▲difficulty securing practical experience opportunities such as experiential internships (19.9%), and ▲increased burden of job preparation costs due to soaring prices (13.9%).

29.6% of university students responded that the environment for new graduate recruitment this year is ‘more difficult than last year.’ This is 5.3 times higher than those who said it is ‘better than last year’ (5.6%).

Additionally, 7 out of 10 senior or graduating (or graduated) university students (65.8%) were found to have effectively given up job hunting. The proportion of those effectively giving up job hunting includes responses indicating ▲‘going through the motions’ (31.8%), ▲‘hardly trying’ (26.7%), and ▲‘taking a break’ (7.3%). Only about 2 out of 10 (16.0%) responded that they are actively job hunting.

The most common reason for not actively job hunting was to prepare more due to lack of personal capabilities, skills, and knowledge (49.5%), followed by a shortage of jobs (38.8%). University students who are actively job hunting this year applied for jobs an average of 6.7 times, but the average number of times they passed document screening was only 2.4, resulting in a document screening pass rate of just 35.8%.

The types of companies university students hope to work for are ranked as follows: large corporations (20.4%), mid-sized companies (19.0%), public enterprises such as government corporations (17.8%), government (civil servants) (16.2%), small and medium enterprises (11.9%), and ventures/startups (7.0%).

Choo Kwang-ho, head of the Economic Headquarters at FKI, stated, “Most young job seekers expect to prepare for employment over a long period of more than a year, and with 65.8% effectively giving up job hunting, winter has already come to the job market as felt by youth.” He emphasized, “We must improve corporate employment conditions through deregulation and reform of the dual labor market structure to create quality private-sector jobs preferred by young people.”

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