Youth unemployment in South Korea
The rate of youth unemployment in South Korea fluctuated in the 9–11% range between 2001 and 2014. It was above 10% in 2018 and down to 7.1% by the end of 2019 - the lowest level since 2011.[1]
Overall youth unemployment rate in South Korea
According to OECD, the youth
NEET
One of the youth unemployment issues in South Korea is youth inactiveness, where there are growing numbers of inactive youth, defined as the NEET(Not in Education Employment or Training).[4]
The youth in South Korea prefer high education to increase and develop their employability in the labor market rather than seeking jobs, which leads them to become inactive.
Structural causes of unemployment
Education
Over the past two decades, the number of students enrolled in
Suneung
Suneung, also known as the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test), is a series of tests taken for eight hours in one day. The test is usually taken by students in their senior year of high school, which some students call "the year of hell".[10] South Korean households hold education as a priority in their cultural value, believing good education will lead their children to successful careers and lives.[11] Suneung is held every year in November, and the test is said to determine which university a student will attend, as well as future employment and wages.[12] Korean students vie for entry to Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University, collectively known as "SKY," because those institutions are known to support the connections needed to be employed in government or family-owned conglomerates (chaebols) that come with employee benefits.[12][11]
To prepare for the Suneung, South Korean parents invest thousands of dollars in tutoring and private education for years of their children's education. South Korea has about 100,000
Though families emphasize a great deal for the education, the employment in South Korea's job market from Korea's conglomerates are not guaranteed.
Mental health and fertility issues
In South Korea, the number one cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 30 years old is suicide.[12] South Korea ranked the highest in suicide rates out all OECD nations, along with the highest stress levels for youth between the ages of 11 and 15 years old.[12] South Korea spent around 7.3% of its GDP on health expenditures in 2016,[15] but as of 2014, only 2.6% of those health expenditures (US$43 million) was for the mental health budget.[16]
In part due to high suicide rates and unease about expensive education, South Korea's population has the lowest
Segmented groups
The cause of unemployment is different for each segmented group.[7] High school graduate and college dropouts have a higher rate of job separation than college graduates.[7] High job separation is due to the mismatch between jobs and workers, where workers cannot attain jobs they prefer.[7] There is also a low performance for temporary employees and seasonal workers.[7]
Other structural problems
Employment regulations deter youths moving from non-regular employment to regular employment, worsening labor market duality.
Economic downturns
South Korea's economic downturns and reduced international competitiveness also cause youth unemployment. Due to the slowing
Policy efforts to mitigate youth unemployment issues
History
Policy efforts to tackle youth unemployment produced a result of increased inactiveness and capped unemployment.[4] From 2004 to 2006, government measures tackled 20% of total unemployment issues, focusing on unemployment of college students and graduates.[7] Implementation was left to the colleges themselves, which made it hard for college students to approach the system voluntarily.[7]
Employment Promotion Plan for High School Graduates or Below, in 2006, provided support services to guide job seeking in order to facilitate school to work transition.[7] Also, it supported for vocational high school students, school dropouts and fostering of manual workers.[7]
Recent trends in policy
The recent trends are leaning toward the corporatist policy approach in lieu of the past market driven policy approach.[4] The corporatist approach includes: working hour reduction, public sector jobs reduction, quality improvement in small firm jobs, and expansion of public sector employment.[4] Policy efforts only accounted for .13% of South Korea's GDP, ranking it the second to the lowest among OECD countries in 2006.[4]
The newly elected president in 2017, Moon Jae-In, won the election in part by promising to reduce youth unemployment.[21] He has claimed to put top priority to expand the public sector for job creation, saying that he would create 810,000 jobs in the public sector.[21] Moon's administration promised to create 174,000 civil service positions in national security and public safety, 340,000 in social services and convert 300,000 irregular workers to fully employed workers.[21] Also, the government increased minimum wages by 16.4% at 7,530 won per-hour, aiming it to become W10,000 by 2020.[22]
Moon Jae-In's administration labor policy had a positive influence in decreasing youth unemployment. As of 2019, the youth unemployment rate was as its lowest level since the late 1990s.[12]
References
- ^ "Unemployment - Youth unemployment rate - OECD Data". theOECD. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
- ^ "Total, % of youth labour force 2002-2016, Annual one highlighted country (KOR) incl. OECD, all countries". OECD.
- ^ "2017 Statistics on the Youth". Statistics Korea.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lee, Byoung-Hoon; Kim, Jong-Sung (2012). "A Causal Analysis of Youth Inactiveness". Ekoreajournal. 52: 139~165.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-92-64-04079-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jeong, Insoo (2007). "The Status of Youth Unemployment in Korea and Policy Tasks". Korean Labor Institute: 76.
- JSTOR j.ctt1x07vsm.5.
- ^ ISBN 9789264040793.
- ^ a b Lee, Jiyeon (Nov 13, 2011). "South Korean students' 'year of hell' culminates with exams day".
- ^ hdl:10419/194731.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Jobless rate hits 6-year low in August, job additions largest in nearly 3 years". September 11, 2019.
- ^ "Population with tertiary education".
- ^ Choi, Wonsik; Dobbs, Richard; Sub, Dongrok; Mischke, Jan; Chon, Eunjo; Kim, Hyunmin. "Beyond Korean style: Shaping a new growth formula".
- ^ Central Intelligence Agency (March 15, 2020). "The World Factbook: Korea, South".
- ^ Roh, Sungwon; et al. (June 2, 2016). "Mental health services and R&D in South Korea".
- ^ "Fertility Rates".
- ^ Haas, Benjamin (Sep 3, 2018). "South Korea's fertility rate set to hit record low of 0.96".
- ^ a b Schmid, Günther (May 2013). "Youth Unemployment in Korea: From a German" (PDF). IZA.
- ^ a b BRZINSKY-FAY, CHRISTIAN (2011). "School-to-Work Transitions in International Comparison". University of Tampere.
- ^ a b c "What Moon Jae-in pledged to do as president". The Korea Herald. May 10, 2017.
- ^ Yu-yeon, Park (November 21, 2017). "Youth Unemployment Soars Despite Gov't Efforts". The Chosun Ilbo.