"Giving Up Job Hunting to Prepare for Civil Service Exam"... Youth Employment Falls for 45th Consecutive Month

[Anchor]

While the total number of employed people increased by over 100,000 last month, a cold wind continues to blow through the youth job market. Youth employment has decreased for 45 consecutive months, and the youth unemployment rate recorded its largest increase in 5 years and 6 months.

Reporter Chae Heesun has the details.

[Reporter]

Park Da-bin, a university student, recently started preparing for the civil service exam.

With open recruitment by corporations shrinking significantly, and opportunities tilting toward experienced workers over newcomers and science majors over humanities majors, she felt landing a job would not be easy.

[Park Da-bin / University Student: I am applying because I lack experience, but the qualification requirements state that experienced applicants are preferred. Civil service is a path where you can go solely based on studying without looking at specs....]

According to a survey by Statistics Korea (Note: translated as National Data Agency per text, but keeping literal as National Data Office / Statistics Korea context), the total number of employed people last month increased by 108,000 from a year ago, recording a double-digit increase in four months.

This is analyzed to be influenced by the announcement of civil service exam results and the expansion of public sector jobs.

However, the situation for the youth group has worsened.

Employed youth aged 15 to 29 decreased by 191,000, declining for the 45th consecutive month.

This is not simply due to a decrease in the youth population.

The youth employment rate, which is the proportion of employed individuals among the total youth population, also fell to 44.2%, down 1.6 percentage points from a year ago, continuing a downward trend for 27 months.

The youth unemployment rate also rose.

Although young people are preparing for employment by obtaining various certificates and gaining internship experience,

[Yu Min-jin / University Student: It is very difficult to get a job with just one major. So multiple majors are practically mandatory, and you really need to build up your specs...]

The youth unemployment rate rose by the largest margin in 5 years and 6 months since January 2021.

[Kim Kwang-seok / Adjunct Professor, Hanyang University: Because stable jobs are not being supplied, a phenomenon where people challenge short-term, unstable jobs and quickly turn into the unemployed is standing out prominently.]

The government plans to announce a plan soon to create 300,000 jobs encompassing private sector, public sector, and entrepreneurship.

However, there are growing concerns that the youth employment slump could be prolonged due to jobless growth caused by the adoption of AI and growth concentrated primarily in semiconductors.

(Video Reported by Lee Jae-young | Video Edited by Choi Jin-hwa | VJ: Jeong Han-wook)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.