[Anchor]
While the economy appears to be performing well according to major indicators, the job market for young people shows little sign of improvement. The number of employed youth is plummeting, and business closures among young entrepreneurs have increased significantly compared to the COVID-19 pandemic era.
Reporter Jung Jun-ho explores the reality facing young people, for whom both the doors to employment and entrepreneurship have been shut.
[Reporter]
A, who holds a master's degree in design, decided to put a difficult job search behind and opened a brunch cafe in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in 2023.
The start was smooth, but customers gradually dwindled. Unable to keep up with soaring labor costs and other expenses, A eventually closed the business in April of last year, just a year and a half after opening.
Only 60 million won in debt remained.
[A / Young Entrepreneur: The cost of food ingredients rose so much compared to when I first started. When I closed the business, the revenue was only about 20 percent of what I had expected.]
A tried to leverage the entrepreneurial experience to apply for jobs in the food industry, but even that proved difficult.
[A / Young Entrepreneur: Companies aren't looking to hire, and I feel that my experience is considered useless when trying to enter the corporate world.]
For young people struggling with unemployment, entrepreneurship is often seen as an alternative opportunity.
However, due to a combination of lack of experience, limited capital, and sluggish domestic demand, the number of business closures among those in their 30s and younger last year was 12 percent higher than four years ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak.
The closure rate is 6 percentage points higher than the overall average.
The problem is that the job market is also becoming increasingly frozen.
[Kim Min-seo / Job Seeker: I'm anxious. If I can't find a job next year, I'll have a gap in my resume, and it will set me back by two to three years.]
In May, the number of employed youth saw its largest decline in five years and four months.
[Kim Gwang-seok / Head of Economic Research, Korea Institute for Economic and Industrial Studies: The period during which young people can build the capacity to support themselves is being delayed, and there may be less support from experienced professionals and talent who are supposed to serve as the backbone of the future.]
With both pillars of youth economic activity—employment and entrepreneurship—collapsing simultaneously, there is a growing sense of crisis that time is running out before the vitality of not only the economy but society as a whole begins to fade.
(Video reporting: Kim Se-kyung | Video editing: Park Na-young | VJ: Jung Han-wook)
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