Unemployed 20s cover shame with newly coined nickname 'God-Su'

The nation's television comedy show touches on the newly coined social stratum “God-Su,” a term representing those in 20's unable to get a job but decided to live on with self-justification.

By Ko Dong-hwan

Unemployed people in their 20s with expired patience have stopped making their ends meet and feel downtrodden by gloriously calling themselves “God-Su,” JoongAng Ilbo said Friday.

The compound mixing “God” and “su” from the Korean diction “Baeksu,” meaning a jobless male, the newly coined word denotes those full of self-esteem despite not being able to nab a career.

They commonly justify their economically incompetent situations by comparing themselves to the employed often marked by suffering significant amounts of stress.

Experts analyze the birth of God-Su reflects today’s increasingly worsening employment for university and college graduates.

Statistics Korea said those aged from 15 to 29 without jobs counted 470,000 as of last February, an unemployment rate of 10.9 percent, the highest since January 2000 when it recorded 11 percent.

The report cited Sociology Prof. Lim Wun-taek from Keimyung University as saying God-Su is an inevitable byproduct of today’s weak labor market. He said those feeling betrayed by the depressive social mood is expressing their rebellious minds with the linguistic idea.

The report said God-Su could also be a result of “cognitive dissonance,” a self-justifying reaction from those facing undesirable reality.