[비즈한국] On the 20th, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, met with Samsung Electronics005930 Chairman Lee Jae-yong to discuss ways to support young people entering the workforce. Representative Lee told Chairman Lee, "The government's job is to create hope for the people, but these days it seems harder for young people to find opportunities compared to the era we lived through," adding, "I am deeply grateful for Samsung's efforts in dedicating resources to open new paths for young people to find opportunities." It is reported that they also discussed youth employment support during their private meeting.
The reason Representative Lee, who has often been at odds with large corporations, met with Chairman Lee to address youth employment is that the chill surrounding the job market is intensifying day by day. The number of unemployed has risen for three consecutive months, and the "resting" population—those who are not actively looking for work—has increased for 12 consecutive months. According to Statistics Korea, the number of unemployed in February this year was 940,000, an increase of 25,000 compared to the same month last year. While the number of unemployed had decreased by 21,000 in November last year, it rose by 171,000 in December, followed by continuous increases in January (11,000) and February of this year.
As finding employment becomes increasingly difficult, the number of people who have simply given up on job hunting is surging. In February, the "resting" population reached 2.697 million, an increase of 123,000 from a year ago, nearly approaching the 3 million mark. The resting population has been on the rise for 12 straight months since a 30,000-person increase last March. Under these circumstances, the mismatch between job seekers and companies looking to hire is becoming severe, raising concerns that the job market will freeze even further.
Statistics on job openings and job seekers from "Worknet," a government-operated job information site managed by the Korea Employment Information Service, show that there is a difference of more than two times between the number of job seekers and the number of positions companies are trying to fill. Furthermore, there is a significant discrepancy between the job conditions sought by applicants and the recruitment conditions offered by companies. Over the past year (February 2024 to January 2025), there were an average of 178,762 new job openings per month posted by companies on Worknet.
In contrast, the number of new job applications averaged 374,365 per month, resulting in a 2.1-fold gap between supply and demand. The number of available jobs is less than half the number of people looking for work. In particular, as the construction industry has recently deteriorated, competition for daily labor positions has been fierce. While there were an average of 32,148 new job seeker applications per month for daily labor, there were only 480 new job openings available for such positions.
There was also a significant gap between job seekers and hiring companies regarding education levels and wages. Out of 342,783 (monthly average) new job seekers who disclosed their education over the past year, 96,218 were four-year university graduates and 8,965 held postgraduate degrees or higher; these highly educated individuals accounted for 30.7% of all new job seekers, totaling 105,108 people.
On the other hand, among the new openings posted by companies, only 1,154 per month were aimed at four-year university graduates. This means there were 61.9 times more job seekers than available positions for this group. Furthermore, new openings seeking postgraduate degree holders averaged only 92 per month, meaning there were 97.4 times more job seekers than jobs. Positions seeking highly educated individuals accounted for only 1.0% of total new job openings, highlighting the harsh reality that employment for highly educated youth is not easy.
As the gap in desired education levels between job seekers and companies widened, a significant discrepancy in wage expectations also appeared. Among the 322,613 (monthly average) new job seekers who disclosed their desired wages over the past year, the largest group—168,459 people, or 52.2%—wished for a wage of 2.5 million won or more. Those seeking wages between 2 million and 2.5 million won accounted for 141,646 (43.9%).
Conversely, companies were most frequently offering wages between 2 million and 2.5 million won, with 84,260 new job openings per month, accounting for 47.1% of the 178,762 total new openings. New job openings offering 2.5 million won or more averaged 62,681 (35.1%) per month. This means there were 2.7 times more job seekers wanting a wage of 2.5 million won or more than there were job openings offering the same condition.