Six out of Ten Job Seekers Are 'Passive Job Hunters'... "Employment This Year Is Harder Than Last Year"

Hankyung Association, 2024 University Students' Employment Perception Survey
Hiring Freeze Continues This Year... 37% Say 'Harder Than Last Year'
Determined 'Long-Term Students'... 37% Have Job Preparation Period Over 1 Year

More than 6 out of 10 young job seekers preparing for employment were found to be 'passive job seekers' with low job search expectations. Four out of 10 young people surveyed said that it is harder to find a job this year compared to last year. The proportion of young people expecting the job preparation period to be over a year was also about 4 out of 10. Experts advise that to increase the number of quality jobs desired by young people, it is necessary to boost corporate vitality by deregulating and improving the dual structure of the labor market.

On May 21st, job seekers were checking the job posting board at the Mid-sized Companies Job Fair held at COEX in Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

According to the results of the '2024 University Student Employment Perception Survey' announced by the Korea Economic Association on the 29th, among 2,938 respondents including students enrolled in four-year universities nationwide and those who have completed or graduated, 60.5% were passive job seekers. Passive job seekers include those who answered that they are job searching out of formality (30.9%), hardly searching (23.8%), or resting (5.8%). Only 23.4% answered that they were actively job searching.

The most common reason for not actively job searching was "to prepare more due to lack of one's own capabilities, skills, and knowledge," at 46.7%. This was followed by "lack of jobs" (18.1%) and "feeling that even if they job search, they will not be able to find a job" (14.0%).

The employment threshold was also high for job seekers who were actively searching. The average document screening pass rate for active job seekers was 22.2%. The average number of job applications was 6.3, and the average number of document passings was 1.4. This pass rate decreased by 6.1 percentage points compared to last year's rate of 28.3%.

Young people increasingly perceive the employment threshold as rising. Among respondents, 4 out of 10 (36.5%) said that the new college graduate recruitment market this year is "more difficult than last year." This is 6.2 percentage points higher than the response rate in last year's survey (30.3%). The response rate for "better than last year" was 3.2%, down 0.4 percentage points from last year's 3.6%.

The biggest difficulty in the job preparation process was identified as "lack of jobs" (50.8%). Detailed responses showed "decrease in entry-level recruitment opportunities" (27.5%), "lack of good jobs matching desired working conditions" (23.3%), and "difficulty securing practical experience opportunities" (15.9%) in that order.

Many young people were also determined to become "long-term job seekers." About 7 out of 10 respondents (67.6%) expected their job preparation period to be "6 months or longer." Those who anticipated "1 year or longer" accounted for about 4 out of 10 (37.1%). One out of 10 (8.9%) expected to prepare for employment for "2 years or longer."

Respondents most frequently cited "improving corporate employment conditions such as deregulation" (26.4%) as a policy improvement task to resolve youth employment difficulties. This was followed by "resolving mismatches through strengthened career guidance and expanded field training support" (21.9%), "alleviating the dual structure of the labor market concentrated on regular workers and labor unions" (18.2%), and "expanding vocational training support in new industries and new technology fields" (17.1%).

Lee Sang-ho, head of the Economic and Industrial Headquarters at the Korea Economic Association, said, "As the economic downturn prolongs, the majority of young people have lost their motivation to seek jobs or are not actively job searching. It is necessary to focus on revitalizing corporate vitality and expanding employment capacity through deregulation and improving the dual structure of the labor market to expand quality jobs desired by young people."

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