By Lee Hyo-sik
The employment rate for economically-active men in their 20s has declined steadily over the past 15 years, reflecting a harsh reality facing young male jobseekers.
According to the Korea Labor Institute (KLI) Tuesday, 73.2 percent of 20-somethings willing to work had a job in 1995. But the ratio fell by 15 percentage points to 58.2 percent in 2010, meaning that fewer than six out of 10 men in their 20s with high-school and university diplomas were employed.
``Many Korean men used to begin their careers in their early 20s as soon as they graduated from high schools. But these days, most male 20-somethings are enrolled in universities, who are classified as an economically-inactive part of the population,’’ KLI research fellow Sung Jae-min said.
He said if young men did not go to college and instead found jobs as in the past, the employment rate among 20-somethings would be much higher.
``Additionally, young men and women these days are looking for only `decent jobs’ at large companies and public organizations, which offer high salaries and good job security. Otherwise, many choose to remain unemployed, which lowers the employment rate among young people,’’ the research fellow said.
The employment rate, a ratio of the employed to the economically-active population consisting of the employed and jobseekers, fell sharply to 64.8 percent in 1998 in the wake of the Asian currency crisis. The rate also nosedived to 58.4 percent in 2009, following the global financial market meltdown.
In 1995, 55 percent of the economically-active female 20-somethings were employed but in 2010, 58.3 percent were found to be on someone’s payroll or runnig their own business.
For both economically-active Korean men and women in their 20s, 58.2 percent had jobs last year, down from 63.5 percent 15 years ago.
Sung projected that the employment rate among young men will likely head downward in the future as companies here do not generate a sufficient number of positions to satisfy jobseekers.
But the number of female employees in their 20s is expected to rise steadily down the road.