00:00 Intro
00:31 Youth Employment in Their 20s Faces Worst Crisis Since Asian Financial Crisis
01:30 A Day in the Life of Job Seekers
04:06 A "Boot Camp" for the Employment War


"There are welding sequences from number 1 to 39..."

Classes begin at 9 a.m., education ends at 9 p.m., and studying starts all over again. This place where people receive training while room and board are provided is neither a boarding school nor an academy for students retaking their college entrance exams, but a live-in employment "boot camp" for job seekers. As the youth unemployment crisis deepens, even live-in employment preparation facilities have emerged. Just how severe is the youth employment problem, which is constantly described as critical?

1. Youth Employment in Their 20s Faces Worst Crisis Since Asian Financial Crisis
From the beginning of this year through August, the number of employed youth 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 Asian financial crisis. A total of 193,000 jobs decreased this year, which is more severe than the 142,000 decline in 2009 during the global financial crisis and the 111,000 drop in 2020 right after COVID-19. According to announcements by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the overall employment rate remains similar to last year, but only the youth employment rate has dropped by 1 percentage point. Furthermore, landing a first job takes 1.3 months longer compared to 10 years ago. Given this situation, the government injected 98.8 billion won in supplementary budget in April of this year to plan the "K-New Deal Academy" to resolve the youth unemployment crunch. Alongside the Ministry of Employment and Labor, some 50 companies are running job training programs designed to help with employment.

2. A Day in the Life of Job Seekers
The place I visited was LS Future Center in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. It is a three-month live-in program where participants stay at the LS Group training institute and learn various skills required for jobs, such as coding, report writing, and interviewing methods. Because they spend 24 hours a day here covering room, board, and focusing solely on job preparation, their skills naturally improve rapidly.

[Kim Yubin (27) / Suwon, Gyeonggi Province: (It has been about a month since you entered the live-in program, do you find it 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 am at a level where I can completely break down data and extract what I want from it.]

From a company's perspective, since they can design the training programs directly, there is the advantage of fostering talent equipped with customized job skills.

[Lee Woo-seop / Team Leader of HRD Planning, LS Future Center: We are running the program so that skills recently demanded by companies, such as AI utilization skills, can be enhanced through this program. For companies, it carries significance in being able to proactively secure prepared talent.]

Even after classes end, participants continue their own studies in study rooms—such as language study, certificate preparation, and project discussions—so days here often wrap 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 more desperate. Because, well, there is age. Three months is a period even shorter than military service, and pushing hard for three months feels like it will prevent any regrets later on.]

Cha Seil, from Nam-gu, Busan, already has six years of experience working in a manufacturing human resources team. However, thinking that AI skills are essential in a fast-changing industry, he voluntarily entered the boot camp as an employment recruit once again. The job market he returned to has changed significantly.

[Cha Seil (31) / Nam-gu, Busan: You can even tell from the job postings 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 for all of us is successful employment, and it is the wish of everyone here to achieve that ultimate goal after fully equipping ourselves with job capabilities.]

3. A "Boot Camp" for the Employment War
A "boot camp" is a military term originally referring to a basic military training camp. Everyone has entered by designating themselves as "employment recruits." The average age of employment recruits entering LS Future Center is 28. Over 100 people applied from all across the country, and 31 were selected. The competition ratio exceeded 3 to 1. When I visited, about a month after admission, four people had successfully found jobs and left the facility, leaving only 27 recruits behind. Experts pay attention to the symbolism carried by the term "boot camp."

[Lee Joo-hee / Professor of Sociology, Ewha Womans University: (A boot camp) means you have to enter like the military and learn all day long. It feels like job competition has turned into an employment war.]

The interpretation is that "live-in job preparation" is practically the process of becoming soldiers who can survive in an employment battlefield. The young people who sought out the boot camp were contemplating their futures and preparing more fiercely than anyone else. However, on the other hand, seeing those who dedicate their youth to job preparation alongside statistics on an increasingly freezing labor market, I felt that what is needed most 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-sook | Video by Kim Seung-tae and Kang Si-woo | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Design by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)