10% of college seniors land full-time job before graduation

A young jobseeker takes a photo of a company recruitment notice at a job convention in COEX, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Kim Hyun-bin

Only one out of 10 college graduates land full-time jobs before graduating, a survey showed, Monday.

The survey shows a tight job market, whereas in the past companies started recruitment in November and December and many college seniors secured jobs one or two months before graduation.

According to Job Korea, an online job portal, only 11 percent of 1,112 college students who will graduate in February said they have landed regular jobs.

Another 10 percent said they accepted irregular positions such as internships, while the remaining 79 percent responded they couldn't find a job yet.

The ratio of college seniors landing full-time jobs dropped by 5.9 percent points from 16.9 percent in the previous survey conducted in January 2016, while that of people with irregular jobs also almost halved from 22.2 percent in the same period.

There was no big gender difference in obtaining regular jobs, with the men's ratio standing at 11.6 percent and women's at 10.3 percent. Business administration majors had the best chance of getting regular jobs at 13.2 percent, followed by science and engineering majors at 12.2 percent and art, music and sports majors at 10.2 percent.

Without jobs, graduation is not something for students to celebrate, the survey showed.

Among the survey participants, 27.2 percent said they will not attend their graduation ceremony. As to the reasons with multiple responses allowed, 70.3 percent said they have “no reason to attend,” while 25.7 percent said they needed to prepare job applications; 21.5 percent said they don't have time due to other duties such as part-time jobs; and 16.5 percent said they don't want to celebrate it because they could not find a job.

Koreans in their late 20s continue struggling to find jobs. According to a study issued recently by the Bank of Korea, the unemployment rate among those in their late 20s was 23.4 percent in 2017, much higher than the 35 OECD nations' average, 14.4 percent.