Young Koreans 'resting' while chasing chaebol jobs, but other options may be better: report

Job seekers browse recruitment notices at the 2026 Midsized Companies Job Fair at the aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, March 31. Newsis

Yoon, 34, is not unemployed in the usual sense. He is not sending out resumes, sitting for interviews or preparing for another company exam. Officially, he belongs to a Korean labor market category known as “resting” — people who are neither working nor looking for a job.

An engineering major from a university in Seoul, Yoon had once hoped to join a large company in the automotive or semiconductor industry. In Korea, such jobs often mean positions at major corporations, including affiliates of family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebol, and are widely seen as offering higher pay and greater stability.

To improve his chances, Yoon retook the college entrance exam after completing his mandatory military service, believing that a stronger educational pedigree would help him compete. But the offers he received came only from small and medium-sized firms. He eventually started working at 30, reluctantly, but each look at his monthly wages left him discouraged.

“I decided to quit my job and prepare again for large companies because I thought that was the only realistic way to earn a higher salary,” Yoon said. “But after failing several times, I’m just staying at home.”

He said he is now considering pursuing a master’s degree.

Yoon is not alone. Some 770,000 young Koreans are estimated to be in a “resting” state, the highest number since records began, revealing a new major social concern in Korea.

To address the issue, a new government report offered a different view of why many young Koreans remain outside the labor market, suggesting that misperceptions about career paths and income may be playing a role.

The report found that entering a smaller company early in one’s career may be a better option than spending years preparing for a job at a large company in hopes of earning a higher salary right away. It called for policy support to help young people access reliable income information, including comprehensive wage data by industry and occupation.

Misperceptions about pay

The Hankook Ilbo obtained the report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor through Rep. Lee Yong-woo, a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Sunday. Commissioned by the ministry and conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET), the report examined the causes of job mismatch among young Koreans and proposed ways to improve long-term employment outcomes.

According to the report, around 70 percent of young Koreans classified as “resting” had previous work experience, but their period of employment after leaving school averaged only 19 months. The report said the perception that young people must either start at a large company or remain stuck in low-wage jobs has contributed to early resignations and prolonged job searches.

It also said the perception that only large companies can offer the wages young people want does not necessarily reflect reality, especially because young Koreans’ desired income levels are not excessively high. A survey conducted last year by the Federation of Korean Industries of 500 unemployed people found that about 40 percent wanted a minimum acceptable annual salary in the 30 million won range (around $20,000).

To debunk widely held misconceptions, the researchers divided all employed young Koreans under 40 into age groups and created an income distribution chart based on the 2023 Employment Activity Statistical Register from Statistics Korea. Using the data, they examined some common salary misconceptions among young people.

First, a high-paying job straight out of school proved to be rare. The vast majority of people in their 20s earned less than 30 million won, regardless of company size or gender.

Nor were large companies and the public sector the only viable paths to an annual salary of more than 50 million won. Analysis showed that a substantial number of jobs at small and medium-sized companies offered similar pay levels once workers reached their 30s. Work experience and length of service were more important factors in determining wages.

Annual pay of more than 70 million won among workers in their late 30s and 40s was also not limited to large companies. Many small and medium-sized companies also offered similar wages to experienced employees with continuous careers.

Lastly, if the goal is an extremely high income of more than 80 million won a year, quitting early to prepare for a professional career was actually a poor choice, the report found. Salaries at that level were most commonly earned by workers in their late 40s to early 50s at large companies. Such earnings were not impossible at midsized or smaller companies, but the odds were lower.

Applicants attend a preliminary orientation for Samsung’s Global Samsung Aptitude Test at Samsung Electronics’ Human Resources Development Center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in October 2025. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Altogether, the researchers concluded that the more realistic path to earning more than 80 million won a year is to start working early, build experience and move to larger firms over time.

This is not to say that the wage gap between large companies and smaller firms is nonexistent. The wage gap did widen with age, and by the time workers reached their late 40s, the divide grew to as much as threefold. However, jobs offering what the report described as “moderately high income,” or annual pay of 55 million won or more, rather than top-tier salaries, were more common at small and medium-sized companies.

Kil Eun-sun, a research fellow at KIET who led the study, told the Hankook Ilbo that changing jobs after three to seven years of work is “the most effective path for moving up the career ladder.”

“Workers can gain far more detailed information than those who prepare outside the labor market without working,” Kil said.

A job seeker browses recruitment notices at the 2026 KB Good Job Fair for Excellent Companies at Coex in southern Seoul, April 27. Newsis

Researchers call for full income distribution data

Behind the misconception that young workers must either start at a large company or remain stuck in low-wage jobs is a lack of credible wage information. Much of the information circulating about pay is based on a handful of personal accounts or crude industrywide averages. But when two companies making the same product have different pay systems, such fragmented information can easily distort reality.

For many young Koreans, the only way to get an accurate sense of income levels is to enter the workforce themselves. Finding reliable information from the outside remains difficult.

“I think information online is unreliable, but it’s not easy to ask someone inside a company how much they make,” said Park So-hee, a 27-year-old job seeker.

In response, the researchers suggested providing information that would allow young people to compare lifetime income paths, income distribution and employment continuity among groups with similar starting conditions.

Kil said disclosing income by years of service within individual companies could raise privacy concerns, but broader data could still offer useful guidance.

“If we conduct a full survey of income distribution for all 200,000 workers in a given business field, we can provide probability-based information without identifying individuals,” Kil said.

The paper also proposed ideas to help young people stay in the workforce longer. One idea was to provide incentives for young people working at quality small and medium-sized companies outside the Seoul metropolitan area, encouraging them to build careers without dropping out of the labor market.

That experience, the paper said, could then help them move to better jobs and raise their lifetime earnings. The Ministry of Employment and Labor is reviewing whether to include such measures in next year’s budget proposal.

A ministry official said other policy support measures are also being prepared.

“We are devising a program to help newly employed young people adjust to their workplaces,” the official said. “We are reviewing various measures, including job training programs that can help them build careers.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.