The centerpiece of the government's latest youth employment package is what it calls "full care" — supporting young people who enter job training all the way through their first job and into career growth. The plan links vocational training, company matching and post-hire career management into a single track, and offers income support worth up to 1 million won ($680) a month for two years to those who take jobs at small and mid-sized companies outside the capital region.
The Youth Job Recovery Plan, announced on the 28th by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and other agencies, is built around three stages: "stepping stone" before employment, "bridge" at the hiring stage and "leap" after employment. The idea is to keep connecting young people to jobs and startup opportunities even if they fail to land work immediately after training, and to manage the training and work records they accumulate in one place.
The stepping-stone stage focuses on developing the talent companies need. The government will add 80,000 training slots this year in artificial intelligence, advanced industries and fields popular among young people. The K-New Deal Academy, in which large corporations, financial firms and foreign companies design curricula themselves, will expand fivefold to 50,000 participants next year from 10,000 this year. Advanced-industry vocational training, specialized universities and graduate schools, vocational high schools and Polytechnic colleges will together train both high-end talent and hands-on工 workers.
The government will also strengthen support to bring back young people who have dropped out at the job-preparation stage. The National Employment Support Program will be reorganized as the Youth First Employment Support Program to cover young people with no work experience, and the job-seeking promotion allowance will rise to 650,000 won a month from 600,000 won. The Youth Challenge and Growth Support program will expand to 67,000 people next year from 58,000 this year. For 6,000 socially isolated and reclusive young people, the government will provide a "recovery and growth ladder" linking everything from restoring daily routines to vocational training.
The bridge stage takes responsibility for job placement so that young people who finish training are not pushed outside the support system again. A newly created "Youth Playground" will offer supplementary education, mentoring by working professionals and company matching for up to one year. Companies that place AI training graduates on actual projects will receive support for labor and mentoring costs, and hiring incentives will be extended to mid-sized companies in the capital region and large companies outside it. Young people who choose to start a business instead of taking a job will have access to 200 billion won in preferential loans.
The leap stage supports young workers in staying at their first job longer while preparing for their next career step. The job skills bank system will be expanded into a "career bank" that tracks not only training and certifications but also work experience, freelance activity, college majors, language test scores and military service. The aim is to let young people use these records as proof of experience when changing jobs or re-entering the workforce. The period during which workers at small and mid-sized companies outside the capital region receive a 90% cut in earned income tax will be extended from the current five years to six years in metropolitan cities, seven years in other regions and 10 years in additional priority areas.
Financial support to steer young people toward regional small businesses will also be sharply expanded. The Youth Job Leap Incentive in priority areas outside the capital region will rise to 14.4 million to 18 million won next year from the current 6 million to 7.2 million won, raising the maximum payment 2.5-fold. Coverage will also extend to the capital region, with 4.8 million won newly paid from next year to young people hired there, who are currently excluded.
Added to that are the Youth Future Savings Account and the Youth Culture and Arts Pass. The government contribution rate for the savings account will rise to 25% from 12% for employees of regional small businesses, and the culture pass will be issued annually to those aged 19 to 34. Young people who use all of these programs can receive a combined total of roughly 1 million won a month for two years, including up to 750,000 won a month in leap incentives, up to 200,000 won a month in government contributions to the savings account and about 10,000 won a month from the culture pass.
"We bundled several programs together so that young people who take jobs at regional companies can receive the maximum benefits," said Kang Ki-ryong, assistant minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, calling it "a key tool to encourage employment at small and mid-sized companies outside the capital region."
To fund the plan, the government will nearly double youth employment spending next year from the current 4 trillion to 5 trillion won. The goal is to add more than 90,000 young workers next year through additional vocational training, private and public sector jobs and work experience programs.
