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Unemployed and over 30: not a good combo
By Ko Dong-hwan
By Ko Dong-hwan
If you are over 30 and without a job, you might be in even a more difficult situation than you imagine.
Job information websites Saramin HR quizzed employment officials at 525 local companies and about 63 percent of them admitted they are reluctant to employ people in their 30s as new employees.
They feel that male jobseekers are too old once they hit 32 while their average answer for women was 30.
Some 70 percent of the respondents said that the age of job applicants has been increasing visibly in recent years, reflecting a stagnant job market. Nearly 64 percent of them admitted that they will pass on qualified applicants if he or she were too old.
So why are firms discriminating against older job applicants? About 55 percent of the respondents claimed that staff members would be discomforted if new employees are older than them, considering the deep-rooted seniority-based culture at the Korean workplace.
About 40 percent of the employment officials feared that old new employees were more likely to challenge the company’s office hierarchy.
There were also fears about older workers being picky about payment and working conditions (29.4 percent), overqualified (25.5 percent) and uneasiness over why that person failed to get a job by that age.
So far all the speechifying putting ability before age and embracing a diversity of values, it seems that most Korean companies still want their workers to be young and obedient corporate drones.
Such prejudice against older job applicants wouldn’t bode well for the country’s increasing unemployment problem, Saramin said.