By Kang Seung-woo
The number of college graduates on payrolls exceeded that of employees with just high school diplomas this year.
According to the latest figures from Statistics Korea Tuesday, 9.54 million people with two-year junior college degrees or higher were employed in March, compared with 9.50 million high school graduates ― the first time the balance has been reversed.
The turnaround continued in April, as employees who completed higher education numbered about 25,000 more than those who graduated from high school for a ratio of 9.64 million to 9.61 million.
The latest statistics show there are 24.3 million employed both on regular payrolls and on a temporary basis.
Among the economically active population aged over 15, the number of high school graduates stood at 15.74 million in comparison with 12.90 million for college graduates.
Despite the inferiority in number, however, college graduates put up better figures.
In terms of employment rates, college graduates outperformed high school graduates in April by a ratio of 74.7 percent to 61.1 percent, while registering a lower jobless rate of 3.9 percent to 4.3 percent.
The state-run statistical agency attributes the nationwide education fever to the fast growth in the number of those who have college degrees.
While the number of those who are over 15 increased from 36.18 million in 2000 to 40.59 million in 2010, showing a 12.2 percent gain, that of college graduates rose 77.1 percent from 7.03 million to 12.45 million in the cited period. High school graduates saw just a 3.1 percent gain during the 10 year span.
With the trend likely to continue, there are growing concerns that more college graduates are expected to be outside the labor force.
Statistics Korea announced last month that the number of economically-inactive adults with two-year college degrees or higher reached 2.95 million in the first quarter of this year, the highest on record. The number represented around 18 percent of the 16.39 million people without work.
In addition, unemployment among those aged between 15 and 29 was 8.7 percent last month, up from 8.6 percent a year earlier, while the nation’s jobless rate was 3.7 percent, down from 3.8 percent in the same month a year ago.
“It is desirable that Korea’s employment structure is shifting to one that is technique- and knowledge-focused, but it is questionable whether it is productive to pay excessive money for private education,” said a Seoul-based economist.
“The government needs to come up with higher value-added businesses which can create jobs,” he added.