More than 560,000 young Koreans spend over a year searching for jobs
More than 560,000 young South Koreans have remained jobless one year after their graduation, data showed Thursday, while nearly half of them have been searching for jobs to no avail for over three years, Yonhap reports.
According to the data from Statistics Korea, the number of employed youths, people aged 15-29 years, came to 3.67 million as of May, a drop of 150,000 from a year earlier.
The statistics agency explained that the youth employment rate has been on a downward trend amid a shrinking population in the age group, as well as a prolonged slump in the construction and manufacturing sectors, noting the number of people in the age group who have finished their education fell 192,000 to some 4.17 million over the cited period.
The number of people who remained unemployed for over a year since their graduation also dipped by 23,000 to 565,000 as of May, but their proportion among those unemployed gained 1 percentage point to 46.6 percent, according to the data.
Of those unemployed, about 230,000 have remained jobless for more than three years, accounting for 18.9 percent of the total, up from 18.5 percent a year earlier.
While 40.5 percent of those unemployed said they were engaged in job-related education or training, 25.1 percent said they simply "passed time."
For waged workers, the average time it took for them to land their first job dropped slightly to 11.3 months from 11.5 months a year earlier, while the average duration of employment at their first jobs also shrank to 18.4 months from 19.2 months, according to the data.
Nearly half, or 46.4 percent, of those who have left their first jobs cited poor working conditions, such as low wages and long working hours, as reasons for quitting.
Earlier, it was reported that Thailand is focused on the development of AI skills and support youth employment.
