"No Desired Job Available"... 1 in 2 Youths 'Give Up on Employment'

Half of Young Adults Are Economically Inactive
Rising Share of 'Resting' Those Who Gave Up on Employment

A recent survey revealed that one out of every two young people in Korea has not participated in economic activities over the past five years.

According to the "Report on Key Characteristics and Implications of the Youth Non-Economic Active Population over the Last Five Years (2018?2022)" released by the Korea Employers Federation on the 25th, the number of young people not participating in economic activities last year was approximately 4.26 million, exceeding the number of employed youth (about 4.03 million). The average proportion of non-economic active youth accounted for 50.0% of the total youth population. The non-economic active population refers to those who are capable of working but either unwilling or unable to work.

About 70% of young people who did not participate in economic activities cited academic reasons, making it the largest group, but the proportion of those who gave up on employment steadily increased. Among the youth non-economic active population, those who responded that they were "resting" numbered 382,000 last year, slightly down from the previous year. However, over the five years, the proportion showed an increasing trend: ▲2018 (6.6%) ▲2019 (7.9%) ▲2020 (9.8%) ▲2021 (9.8%) ▲2022 (8.9%).

The biggest reason cited by young people not participating in economic activities was "difficulty finding the desired job." As of last year, 27.8%, or 106,000 people, responded this way. This contrasts with the majority of the working-age population (ages 15?64), who, despite having no serious illnesses or disabilities, answered that they were resting due to poor health.

Among the youth non-economic active population, only 20% had the intention to find employment or start a business within a year and had concrete plans to participate in the labor market. Of these, about 96.4% preferred wage employment over entrepreneurship.

The desired monthly wage level for young non-economic active individuals hoping for wage employment was mostly between 2 million and 3 million KRW.

The most desired industries for employment were ▲public administration ▲defense and social security administration, accounting for 27%, indicating that government jobs were the top preferred positions. These were followed by ▲professional, scientific, and technical services (12.4%) and ▲healthcare and social welfare services (11.2%).

Choi Yoon-hee, head of the Youth Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) team at the Korea Employers Federation, stated, "Measures must be taken to enhance companies' job creation capabilities and to lower excessive entry barriers in the labor market to reduce the threshold for employment." She added, "To enable young people to smoothly enter and re-enter the labor market, regulations on fixed-term and dispatched workers should be eased, and flexible work systems should be expanded to increase flexibility."

She further emphasized, "It is necessary to establish a wage system based on the value and performance of the tasks performed by workers to lower the entry barriers for young people in the labor market."

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