As the government pushes a plan to extend unemployment benefits to workers under 35 who quit voluntarily, data show that two out of three voluntary leavers in that age group depart before completing a year on the job. The measure is intended to ease the burden of quitting, but critics warn it could instead encourage early job-hopping.
According to employment administration statistics from the Korea Employment Information Service released on the 15th, 192,299 people under 35 lost employment insurance coverage in the first half of this year. Of those, 146,418, or 76.1%, left voluntarily for personal reasons.
Among voluntary leavers, 97,437 had worked less than a year, accounting for 66.5% of the total. The share of short-tenure departures rose as age fell. Among those aged 20 to 24, 80.1% left before completing a year, compared with 63.5% for those aged 25 to 29 and 55.2% for those aged 30 to 34. That means eight out of 10 people in their early 20s packed up within a year.
Two in Three Young Workers Leave Before One Year
Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said in its second-half policy briefing that it would push to amend the Employment Insurance Act so that workers under 35 who leave voluntarily after a minimum period of employment could receive job-seeking benefits once in their lifetime.
The plan is designed to give young workers whose first job does not match their skills or working conditions a chance to explore a new career path without delaying their departure because of financial pressure. Two bills to amend the Employment Insurance Act, introduced separately by Park Hae-chul and Park Hong-keun of the Democratic Party of Korea, are also pending in the National Assembly. The government says the measure reflects the reality that young workers stay at their first job for an average of just one year and 6.8 months, according to the National Data Agency as of May 2026.
Still, there is considerable pushback that the policy amounts to institutional support for early resignation. With two of every three voluntary leavers already quitting within a year, guaranteeing unemployment benefits on top of that could serve as an incentive to move on even sooner, critics say.
Online, reactions such as "you'd be a fool not to collect it when the state is handing it out" have spread widely. Questions of fairness toward unemployed young people have also been raised. Because only those who have held a job at least once and then quit voluntarily would qualify, critics say the design could trigger a backlash over unequal treatment of young people who have yet to land a first job.
Fiscal strain is another variable. The employment insurance fund posted a current-account deficit of 592 billion won in fiscal 2025. Excluding borrowings from the Public Capital Management Fund, actual reserves stood at just 79.6 billion won, and the unemployment benefit account was 5.9933 trillion won in deficit on an actual basis.
Experts said they share the goal of helping young people try again, but questioned whether delivering the support within the existing unemployment benefit framework is appropriate and called for a design that also accounts for fiscal stability.
