Real Income Growth Rate for Young People in Their 20s Stays at Just 1% Over the Past Decade

Unemployment Rate Falls, but Rise in Non-Regular Jobs Limits Income Growth
Surge in Dining-Out Costs Drives Up Perceived Inflation... Slowing Real Income Growth

The real income of young people has recorded the lowest growth rate among all age groups over the past decade.

According to the "2014-2024 Analysis of Real Income Trends by Generation" released by the Federation of Korean Industries on September 29, the real income of people in their 20s increased from an average of 1,764,000 won per month in 2014 to 2,123,000 won in 2024.

During the same period, the annual average growth rate of real income for those in their 20s was 1.9%, which was lower than that of people in their 30s (3.1%), 40s (2.1%), 50s (2.2%), and those aged 60 and above (5.2%). The growth rate also slowed from 2.6% in 2014-2019 to 1.1% in 2019-2024.

While youth employment improved in quantitative terms, a decline in job quality was found to have limited the growth of real income. The youth unemployment rate fell from 9.0% in 2014 to 5.8% in 2024, a decrease of 3.2 percentage points, and the employment rate rose from 57.4% to 61.0% over the same period. However, the proportion of non-regular workers increased by 11.1 percentage points, from 32.0% to 43.1%. The annual average growth rate of earned income for young people was only 3.6%, the lowest among all age groups.

Inflation also contributed to the slowdown in income growth. The perceived inflation rate among young people jumped from an annual average of 1.1% in 2014-2019 to 2.8% in 2019-2024. During the same period, the nominal disposable income growth rate for young people rose slightly from 3.8% to 4.0%, but the rapid increase in living expenses such as dining out led to a decline in the real income growth rate. In particular, the price of "food and accommodation" rose by an annual average of 4.0% over the past five years, accounting for 30.9% of the perceived inflation among young people.

The Federation of Korean Industries suggested that, in order to improve income conditions for young people, labor market policies should be diversified, such as expanding employment training, and that measures to stabilize dining-out prices should be implemented in parallel by alleviating the cost burden of food ingredients for restaurants.

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