1.26 Million 'Cheongnyeon Baeksu' Youth Unemployed After Graduation

The average time to first employment is 10 months
Even after employment, the first job tenure lasts only one and a half years

The number of 'young unemployed' individuals who remain jobless even after graduation was found to be over 1.26 million. Among them, more than half held a university degree.

According to the supplementary survey on the youth population from the Statistics Korea Economically Active Population Survey on the 27th, the youth population aged 15 to 29 was recorded at 8.416 million as of May.

Among them, the number of final school graduates (excluding those currently enrolled or on leave, including those who completed or dropped out) was 4.521 million. Of these, 1.261 million were confirmed to be unemployed.

Examining the detailed characteristics of unemployed graduates through microdata, those with a university degree or higher accounted for 53.8% of the total. University graduates numbered 666,000 (451,000 from 4-year universities, 215,000 from 3-year or less programs), and those with graduate degrees or higher were 12,000. The proportion of high school graduates or below was 46.2%, including 524,000 high school graduates, 48,000 middle school graduates, and 10,000 elementary school graduates or below.

The total number of young people who have had work experience after graduation was 3.947 million, among whom 3.865 million had their first job as wage workers.

The average time taken to find the first job was 10.4 months, but 324,000 people (8.4%) took more than three years. Including those who took more than two years to find their first job, the number was 591,000 (15.3%).

The unemployed mainly responded that they were 'receiving vocational training' (4.7%) or 'attending academies or libraries to prepare for employment-related exams' (36.2%). Additionally, one in four (25.4%) said they 'just spent time at home or elsewhere.'

The rate of attending academies or libraries to prepare for employment exams was particularly notable among 4-year university graduates (61.2%). This indicates that despite investing significant time and resources to graduate from a 4-year university, there was still a need for additional study to secure employment.

In fact, among those with work experience, nearly half responded that their job was unrelated to their major, with 38.6% saying 'strongly disagree' and 10.8% saying 'somewhat disagree.' Conversely, only 50.6% answered that their job was 'very related' (25.9%) or 'somewhat related' (24.7%) to their major.

The average duration for 4-year university graduates to complete their degree was 5 years and 1 month (6 years for men, 4 years and 6 months for women).

Also, the average tenure at the first job for the youth population was 1 year and 7 months, which is 0.2 months shorter compared to the same period last year. On average, they find their first job about 10 months after graduation and quit it after about one and a half years.

The most common reason for leaving the first job was dissatisfaction with working conditions such as pay, accounting for 45.9%. This was followed by 'completion of temporary or seasonal work and contract expiration' (14.7%), 'personal or family reasons such as health, childcare, or marriage' (14.6%), and 'lack of prospects' (9.1%).

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