One in Three PhD Holders Unemployed as Job Seeking Declines

[Anchor]

Joining us for Tuesday's Friendly Economy is reporter Han Jiyeon. Han, is it true that it is becoming difficult to find a job even with a PhD?

[Reporter]

While the number of PhD degree holders has reached an all-time high, it turns out that one in three new PhD graduates has yet to find employment.

Out of approximately 10,500 people who graduated last year, 67% were employed, while 33% remained jobless. This marks the first time the unemployment rate for PhD holders has exceeded 30% since such data began to be tracked.

In particular, the figure rose by 3.7 percentage points from a year ago, marking the largest increase on record.

What stands out is the significant rise in the number of people who have stopped looking for work altogether. The proportion of the non-economically active population—those not seeking employment—nearly doubled from 3% to 5.6%. This suggests that many are giving up or delaying their job search due to the difficulty of finding employment.

The primary reason is a lack of sufficient jobs for PhD holders. Universities, where most PhDs seek employment, are trending toward reducing full-time faculty and increasing non-tenured positions, such as part-time lecturers, as the student population shrinks.

Government-funded research institutes and R&D sectors at large corporations are also failing to create jobs fast enough to absorb new PhD graduates. Ultimately, this statistic highlights a structural problem where the rate at which high-quality jobs are created is slower than the rate at which PhDs are produced.

[Anchor]

The youth employment issue seems very serious.

[Reporter]

That is correct. The unemployment rate for PhD holders under the age of 30 is 51.1%, which is more than half, reaching an all-time high.

As finding a job becomes more difficult, the number of young PhD holders who have stopped searching has also surged. The proportion of the non-economically active population in this group jumped significantly from 2.6% to 7.9%.

Experts believe that young PhD holders entering the job market for the first time are facing greater difficulties than those with prior experience. The recent contraction of the youth labor market itself appears to be a contributing factor.

The youth employment rate has been on a downward trend for 25 consecutive months. The Bank of Korea has analyzed that youth employment has declined in sectors such as computer programming, information services, and professional services following the spread of artificial intelligence, explaining that the trend of AI replacing some entry-level jobs has also had an impact.

Even those who succeeded in finding employment did not all receive the same treatment. By major, the proportion of those earning an annual salary of 100 million won or more was highest in business, administration, and law at 29.8%, while it stood at only 3.7% for arts and humanities.

There was also a gender gap. The unemployment rate was higher for women than for men, and the proportion of those earning 100 million won or more was more than twice as high for men as it was for women.

[Anchor]

Today is the last day of June, so it is already time to discuss Samsung Electronics' second-quarter earnings.

[Reporter]

Kiwoom Securities has released its second-quarter operating profit forecast for Samsung Electronics, lowering it from the previous 100 trillion won to 89 trillion won.

Kiwoom Securities analyzed that costs related to recent performance-based bonus payments would be reflected more heavily than expected. However, it projected that semiconductor prices would rise more than initially anticipated.

It expects prices for general-purpose DRAM to rise by 58% and NAND flash by 75% compared to the previous quarter. However, it analyzed that the second-quarter earnings forecast was lowered because the cost burden related to performance bonuses was reflected more significantly than the price increase effect of semiconductors.

It also projected that operating losses would continue in the second quarter for the System LSI business, which designs semiconductors, and the foundry business, which manufactures them on a contract basis, as they have not recovered as much as expected.

However, the firm noted that this forecast does not mean that the overall annual performance has worsened, and since the impact depends largely on which quarter the performance bonus costs are reflected in, it expects no major changes to the annual earnings outlook.

It also expects the impact on the stock price to be limited, and maintained its "Buy" rating and target price of 430,000 won.

Additionally, it projected that operating profit would meet market expectations at 114 trillion won in the third quarter.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.