The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) called for restoring what it described as a "growth ladder" for young workers, as an average of 680,000 people in their 20s and 30s were neither working nor looking for work each month this year. Rather than simply expanding the number of jobs, the group said the goal should be to help young people build skills while working and move to better positions.
The FKI said it held a seminar on youth employment policy on the 24th at the FKI Tower in Seoul's Yeouido district. According to Statistics Korea, the employment rate for people aged 15 to 29 fell for 27 straight months compared with a year earlier, from May 2024 through July this year. From January to July, an average of 680,000 people in their 20s and 30s were classified as "at rest," and as of May, 48.6% of young people remained unemployed for at least a year after graduating from university.
Kim Chang-beom, vice chairman of the FKI, said a labor market ecosystem should be created in which "jobs can improve in step with young people building their skills." Kim stressed the need to reform the seniority-based pay system, rigid working hours, and an education system that fails to keep pace with industry demand.
Some speakers pointed to the dual structure of the labor market as the root of young people's difficulty finding work. The average monthly wage at businesses with 300 or more employees was 5.738 million won, 56% higher than the 3.667 million won at businesses with fewer than 300 employees. Monthly working hours, by contrast, showed a relatively small gap, at 170.3 hours and 162.4 hours respectively.
Byun Jae-hyun, head of the jobs center at Miraesaenggak, said the problem is hard to solve by blaming young people for chasing only large companies while ignoring the quality gap between jobs.
Shin Chang-hoon, president of the student council at Kyung Hee University, said what young people need are "jobs where they can start, grow, and move up," stressing that skill-building and career mobility, rather than the number of people employed, should be treated as the measure of policy success.
Han Joseph, a research fellow at the Korea Development Institute, recommended easing entry regulations for new industries, improving the dual structure of the labor market, and overhauling university education and training in response to the spread of AI. As AI rapidly automates existing work, creating labor demand in new industries is the key to expanding net employment for young people, he explained.
