"To Survive," Worse Than COVID: Young People "Voluntarily Enlisting" for Jobs?

1. Youth Employment Faces Worst Crisis Since Asian Financial Crisis
From January through August of this year, the number of employed young adults in their 20s decreased by 5.6% compared to the same period last year. Comparing the same periods, this drop is the largest since the IMF foreign exchange crisis. With a decrease of 193,000 people this year, the situation is more severe than the drops seen in 2009 during the global financial crisis (142,000) and in 2020 immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic (111,000). According to Ministry of Employment and Labor announcements, the overall employment rate remains similar to last year, but the youth employment rate alone has dropped by 1 percentage point. Furthermore, landing a first job takes 1.3 months longer compared to 10 years ago. Given these circumstances, in April of this year, the government injected 98.8 billion won in supplementary budget funds to plan the K-New Deal Academy to address the youth employment difficulties. In collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, some 50 companies are running job-training programs that help with employment.

2. A Day in the Life of Job Seekers
The place I visited was LS Mirae Won in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. It is a three-month live-in training course where participants stay at the LS Group training center and learn various skills necessary for employment, such as coding, report writing, and interviewing techniques. Since they handle meals and accommodation here 24 hours a day and focus solely on getting a job, their skills naturally improve quickly.

[Kim Yu-bin (27) / Suwon, Gyeonggi Province: (It has been about a month since you entered the live-in program, do things feel easier compared to when you first started?) Yes, when it came to handling data, at first I could only handle it at about an Excel level, but now I think I can completely break down data and extract what I want from within that data.]

From the companies' perspective, since they can design the training programs directly, they have the advantage of being able to foster talent equipped with customized job skills.

[Lee Woo-seop / Team Leader of HRD Planning, LS Mirae Won: We are running programs so that competencies recently demanded by companies, such as AI utilization, can be enhanced through this program. From a company's perspective, I think it is meaningful in that we can proactively secure prepared talent.]

Even after the training sessions end, participants continue their independent studies in study rooms—studying languages, preparing for certifications, and discussing projects—so a day here usually wraps up only after midnight. Kim Young-sik, who came from Wonju, Gangwon Province, said he is approaching this program with a desperate mindset.

[Kim Young-sik (32) / Wonju, Gangwon Province: I should say I am a bit more desperate. Because, well, age is a factor. Three months is even shorter than military service, and pushing hard for three months seems like it will prevent any regrets later.]

Cha Se-il, from Nam-gu, Busan, already has six years of work experience in a manufacturing human resources team. However, thinking that AI competencies are essential in a fast-changing industry, he voluntarily re-entered the job market as a new recruit to join the bootcamp. The job market he returned to has changed significantly.

[Cha Se-il (31) / Nam-gu, Busan: You can even tell from the recruitment notices that they ask about AI competencies, such as what you have achieved by utilizing AI. I am approaching this with a heavy heart, thinking of it as my final challenge. Our ultimate goal is successful employment, and our shared hope is to achieve that final goal after equipping ourselves with all the necessary job skills.]

3. A "Recruit Training Center" for the Employment War
"Bootcamp" is originally a military term meaning a recruit training center. Everyone has entered by posing as an "employment recruit." The average age of the employment recruits who entered LS Mirae Won is 28. Over 100 people applied from all across the country, and 31 were selected. The competition rate exceeded 3 to 1. When I visited, about a month after admission, four people had successfully found jobs and left the program, leaving only 27 recruits behind. Experts pay attention to the symbolism held by the term "bootcamp."

[Lee Joo-hee / Professor of Sociology, Ewha Womans University: (Bootcamp) means entering the military-style facility and having to learn all day long. It gives the feeling that job competition has turned into an employment war.]

This is interpreted as meaning that "live-in job preparation" is essentially a process of becoming soldiers who can survive in the employment battlefield. The young people who visited the bootcamp were contemplating and preparing for their futures more fiercely than anyone else. However, on the other hand, seeing people sacrifice their youth to prepare for jobs while looking at statistics on the freezing labor market, I could not help but think that what is most needed is an employment market where such extreme forms of live-in job preparation are not necessary in the first place.

Reported by Lee Se-hyeon | Produced by Shin Hee-sik | Video by Kim Seung-tae and Kang Si-u | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.