The employment rate for university graduates in Gangwon Province, announced by the Ministry of Education, stands at 67.2%.
This is 2.3 percentage points lower than the national average.
Even when graduates manage to find jobs, the retention rate for keeping those jobs for a year is only 80.4%, falling short of the national average.
Because there is a shortage of occupations preferred by young people, it leads to an outflow to the Seoul metropolitan area.
[Interview / Jeong Hee-sung, Deputy Manager, Employment Support Team, Gangwon State Economic Promotion Agency: For university graduates, there are various job fields, right? Since there aren't many jobs where they can find employment immediately tailored to those job duties, they naturally tend to look outside the province...]
Thirty percent of employed workers within the province are concentrated in agriculture, simple labor, and service industries.
[Reporter Kim Yi-gon / G1 Broadcasting: Universities in the Gangwon region are establishing customized departments tailored to job trends and industrial demand.]
Kangwon National University has established South Korea's first graduate program for the Department of Defense Semiconductors.
The structure is designed so that once 12 specialized personnel are trained through government funding, defense companies will hire them upon graduation.
[Interview / Kim Ik-hyun, Head of the Department of Digital Military Science, Kangwon National University: The culmination of IT is heading toward AI right now. Since the design-centric capabilities to create semiconductors that embed this are being built around Chuncheon, it will significantly impact not only the university but also the regional economy...]
Hallym University is also establishing the province's first Glocal MICE Department starting next year.
As demand surged with the number of students taking double majors exceeding 180, a regular department was created.
[Interview / Yoon Eun-joo, Professor of MICE Planning and Management, Hallym University: We are envisioning opportunities for the personnel produced by Hallym University to settle down in the region and directly manage such events. Since the number of companies in the MICE industry continues to increase, employment opportunities are boundless and they are already showing high employment rates.]
Local governments are also stepping up by operating the Gangwon Defense Venture Center and attracting MICE events following the establishment of the Gangneung Convention Center, thereby activating industry-academia-research cooperation systems.
Low Employment Rates… Regional Universities Find a Breakthrough Through Customized Departments (August 3, 2026, 12:00 News)
Reported by Kim Yi-gon (G1 Broadcasting) | Written by Bae Jun-hwi | Camera Filming by Shin Hyun-guk (G1 Broadcasting) | CG by Lee Min-seok (G1 Broadcasting) | Produced by SBS Digital News
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