Repeat Job Losses Push Student Loan Deferrals to Record Among Koreans in Their 30s

* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and delivers six news items tailored to each reader type.

1. Landing a Job but Losing It Soon After: Student Loan Deferrals Hit Record Among Those in Their 30s

Key points: The number of people in their 30s who deferred student loan repayments after losing jobs they had landed reached 8,475 as of 2025, the highest on record. The figure jumped more than 15% from a year earlier, exceeding the 6,190 borrowers in their 20s by nearly 2,300. Of the 24.3 billion won in total deferred payments, 61.7% belonged to borrowers in their 30s. Repeat deferrals — borrowers approved for deferment two or more times in a single year — rose 2.7-fold to 1,320 last year from 488 in 2021, and of the 7,892 borrowers who deferred for two years starting in 2022, 1,263 were in arrears. The share of young people who take more than a year to land their first job also climbed to 33% in 2025 from 29% in 2020, pointing to a structure in which delayed entry into the labor market translates into debt burdens.

2. Labor Ministry Pushes Minimum Pay Guarantee for 8 Million Gig and Platform Workers

Key points: The Ministry of Employment and Labor has commissioned research on introducing a minimum pay system, separate from the Minimum Wage Act, for about 8 million specially employed and platform workers including delivery riders and parcel couriers. The plan is to survey the actual income of about 1,000 piece-rate workers, calculate their real hourly pay and compare it with the current minimum wage, with the research contracts awarded in two rounds in July and September this year. The current Minimum Wage Act applies only to workers defined under the Labor Standards Act, making it difficult to cover these workers. Labor groups called for expanded application at this year's Minimum Wage Commission, but business groups opposed it and no agreement was reached. The key will be agreement among labor, management and government on who is covered, where the pay floor is set and who bears the cost, and observers expect considerable friction before the system is put in place.

3. Billed as AI, but People Made the Calls: Meta Halts 'Human Concierge'

Key points: It emerged that Meta had assigned contract workers to handle calls on behalf of its AI agent "Muse." After some call recipients refused to speak with an AI, the company hired contract staff and directed them to handle tasks such as booking hair salon appointments and checking store inventory. In one case a worker made racist remarks, and Meta halted testing of the feature entirely. Criticism has spread that the company promotes autonomous AI while relying on human labor to deliver the service in practice. Muse, meanwhile, topped free app download charts on both Apple's and Google's app stores within two weeks of launch. The Nasdaq Composite hit record highs for two consecutive days on Muse's success, while the S&P 500 financials index fell 2% the same day on concerns that AI could disrupt how consumers use financial services.

4. With Home Prices Soaring, 'Apart-tels' Are Back in Favor

Key points: Surging apartment prices and lending restrictions are pushing mid-sized and large officetels — studio units used as either a home or an office — in prime Seoul and metropolitan locations to the fore as alternative housing. A project on the former CBS site in Mokdong is moving ahead with 244 officetel units, mostly small and mid-sized at 60 to 80 square meters of exclusive floor area, while applications for Mokdong Yunseul Xi this month drew 3,788 bids for 651 units, a peak ratio of 8.7 to 1. Officetel transactions nationwide rose 8.2% year-on-year in the first half of this year, and transactions of units larger than 60 square meters jumped 21.4% from the second half of last year. The sale price index for officetels larger than 85 square meters has risen for 11 straight months since October last year, and another 5,666 units are scheduled to go on presale at eight sites nationwide in the fourth quarter.

5. Investing Chuseok Cash Gifts: 'Chip and Dividend ETFs Worth Holding Long Term'

Key points: South Korea's five largest asset managers — Samsung, Mirae, KB, Korea Investment Trust and Shinhan — recommended semiconductor and dividend exchange-traded funds as places to put Chuseok cash gifts. They see strong growth prospects for chip ETFs on structural demand from the spread of AI, and expect dividend ETFs to deliver steady cash flow even in volatile markets. Over the past month, SOL Semiconductor Front-End Process and KODEX U.S. CPU Semiconductor TOP 10 posted double-digit gains of 20.63% and 23.93%, respectively, and three of the five managers jointly recommended ACE U.S. Dividend Quality. K-beauty, AI infrastructure and short-term dollar bonds were also cited as alternatives.

6. Interest to Be Paid on IPO Subscription Deposits

Key points: Daishin Securities will pay annual interest of 1% on IPO subscription deposits of up to 1 million won and 0.6% on amounts above that, signaling a shift in industry practice. Brokerages have drawn criticism for depositing investors' money with institutions such as Korea Securities Finance between the subscription date and the refund date, earning returns on it without passing any interest back to investors. The Financial Services Commission also made a plan to pay interest on subscription deposits official at a presidential policy briefing in July, and Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee, stressed the need to return earnings to investors. Daishin Securities' preemptive move raises the likelihood that other brokerages will follow, analysts said.