<Anchor> It's
friendly economy time. Today (21st), I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. Today, I would like to talk about youth employment issues. Are you saying that more and more young people are preparing for employment? (Yes, have you ever heard of a job-ready student?) Are you a job-ready student? I didn't hear it very well.
<Reporter>
Literally, it refers to young people preparing for employment, and it is said that these days, it is a word often used by college students. It takes a long time to prepare for a job, and it costs a lot, so I prepare first to raise money such as a part-time job.
Is it because it is such a difficult time to even prepare for a job? There were 1548,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 29 who could not find a job after graduating from school.
This is an all-time high. Since there are 4.7 million graduates in total, one in three graduates cannot find a job after graduation and is still preparing for a job or resting at home.
In particular, 18% of the total are young people who have not been employed for more than three years, which is slightly higher than a year ago.
Most of the young people who could not find a job were preparing for a job test or looking for a job, but close to 25% of those who just spent their time doing nothing.
<Anchor> That's
right. It seems to be very difficult for young people to find a job. So, is it that more and more young people are preparing for civil service exams?
<Reporter>
Among young people, the number of people preparing for employment exams is the highest since statistics were compiled. The number is said to be 859,000, which is an increase of 55,000 from last year.
What kind of job exams are these young people preparing for? About 1 in 3 people are preparing for general civil servants, a 4% increase from a year ago. There was a higher proportion of women than men.
On the other hand, the ratio of preparing general companies or public companies has decreased compared to a year ago. In the aftermath of COVID-19, large corporations have reduced large-scale regular hiring and switched to frequent hiring. And it appears to be happening.
As employment becomes more difficult, the time it takes to graduate from college is getting longer each year. As of May of this year, it took an average of five years and two months to graduate from a four-year university.
Among college graduates, the proportion of those who took a leave of absence was 48.1%, which also increased by 1.1 percentage points from a year ago.
<Anchor>
Reporter Kim, how long did it take for young people to find employment after graduating?
<Reporter>
Most of the young people started their first job as wage workers. After graduating, it took an average of 10 months to find a job.
In terms of the ratio, more than half were able to find a job after graduating and preparing for a job for more than three months.
1 in 10 young people who took one to two years, and 8.2% of those who took more than three years, even if they succeeded in finding a job in this way, their starting salary is only about the minimum wage.
In more than 73% of cases, the monthly salary at their first job was less than 2 million won. Among them, 1.5 million won to 2 million won, this is the minimum wage range. This was the most.
The most common first jobs were in the public service industry, accommodation/food industry, and manufacturing industry. The average working period here was about 1 year and 6 months.
Dissatisfaction with pay or working hours accounted for nearly half of the reasons for quitting the first job due to poor working conditions.
Personal reasons such as health, parenting, and marriage were far less than this.
<Anchor>
Lastly, the youth population itself has decreased a lot. This is also a bit worrisome.
<Reporter>
That's right. The share of the youth population has fallen below 20%. As of May, the population aged 15 to 29 was 8,799,000.
Compared to last year, the number of people decreased by 136,000, or 1.5%, and now the proportion of young people in the total age group is only 19.5%. Until the early 2000s, the share of the youth population remained at 30%.
This is the time when the generation of baby boomers' children became young people, and since then, it has decreased every year and fell to the 20% level in 2002. This year, after 19 years, is the first time to record the 10% level.
The youth are the key future driving force that will lead the national industry. There are also concerns that as the number of older people than young people increases, it could become a factor that lowers the vitality of the domestic economy.