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Asia News Network
07-07-2025
- Business
- Asia News Network
Fewer unmarried young South Koreans living at home aspire to work, report finds
July 7, 2025 SEOUL – More young, unmarried South Koreans living with their parents, tend to express less desire to work over the past decade, according to a new report by the state-run Korea Labor Institute. The report, released in late June, analyzes a decade of data from 2015 to 2024 based on Statistics Korea's annual survey of the economically inactive population — focusing on individuals aged 19 to 39 who are not actively seeking employment. According to the research institute, 56.1 percent of economically inactive youth living at home with their parents had showed willingness to seek employment in 2015. But the figure gradually declined to 50 percent in 2024, suggesting the desire to actively participate in economic activities has weakened over the past 10 years. The same report highlighted that the number of young Koreans who are willing to work but believe they have no chance of getting a job increased from 5,382 to 175,000 over the past decade, citing lack of work experience, education and suitable positions for their educational background. The number of those who felt they have job opportunities decreased from 79,643 to 14,882. Meanwhile, the Korea Labor Institute noted that almost 2.73 million young Koreans — accounting for some 77 percent of the economically inactive population in 2024 — reported no intention to find a job. About 20 percent expressed the willingness to work but had not engaged in activities related to a job search within the past four weeks, according to the report. The report stated that the percentage of those who said they would be able to work if offered a job decreased significantly from 54 percent to 31 percent during the same period between 2015 and 2024. The institute explained that this sharp drop could be attributed to the impact of COVID-19. The Korea Labor Institute identified resting, education and child care as the top three reasons for youth economic inactivity over the past decade. The report stated that the share of younger people engaged in child care dropped sharply from 26.8 percent to 13.8 percent over the decade. But those categorized as resting doubled from 10.5 percent to 20 percent. The proportion of those attending school remained relatively stable over the 10-year period. The report noted that youth economic activity tends to stabilize after the age of 26. While many young people experience repeated unemployment with short-term jobs until their mid-20s, they tend to fall into two different groups by ages 25 or 26: one that stabilizes into employment and another that shifts into long-term economic inactivity due to lack of work experience. Though transitions in employment status are frequent before 28, significant changes are difficult to observe after this age, according to the employment and labor institute. 'While it is important to understand what proportion of youth are currently in a resting status, it is even more critical to identify how long each individual will remain in that state,' the Korea Labor Institute said in the report, explaining that a comprehensive measure to tackle the economically inactive population might not effectively respond to declining willingness to participate in labor among young Koreans.
Korea Herald
06-07-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Fewer unmarried young Koreans living at home aspire to work, report finds
More young, unmarried South Koreans living with their parents, tend to express less desire to work over the past decade, according to a new report by the state-run Korea Labor Institute. The report, released in late June, analyzes a decade of data from 2015 to 2024 based on Statistics Korea's annual survey of the economically inactive population -- focusing on individuals aged 19 to 39 who are not actively seeking employment. According to the research institute, 56.1 percent of economically inactive youth living at home with their parents had showed willingness to seek employment in 2015. But the figure gradually declined to 50 percent in 2024, suggesting the desire to actively participate in economic activities has weakened over the past 10 years. The same report highlighted that the number of young Koreans who are willing to work but believe they have no chance of getting a job increased from 5,382 to 175,000 over the past decade, citing lack of work experience, education and suitable positions for their educational background. The number of those who felt they have job opportunities decreased from 79,643 to 14,882. Meanwhile, the Korea Labor Institute noted that almost 2.73 million young Koreans -- accounting for some 77 percent of the economically inactive population in 2024 -- reported no intention to find a job. About 20 percent expressed the willingness to work but had not engaged in activities related to a job search within the past four weeks, according to the report. The report stated that the percentage of those who said they would be able to work if offered a job decreased significantly from 54 percent to 31 percent during the same period between 2015 and 2024. The institute explained that this sharp drop could be attributed to the impact of COVID-19. The Korea Labor Institute identified resting, education and child care as the top three reasons for youth economic inactivity over the past decade. The report stated that the share of younger people engaged in child care dropped sharply from 26.8 percent to 13.8 percent over the decade. But those categorized as resting doubled from 10.5 percent to 20 percent. The proportion of those attending school remained relatively stable over the 10-year period. The report noted that youth economic activity tends to stabilize after the age of 26. While many young people experience repeated unemployment with short-term jobs until their mid-20s, they tend to fall into two different groups by ages 25 or 26: one that stabilizes into employment and another that shifts into long-term economic inactivity due to lack of work experience. Though transitions in employment status are frequent before 28, significant changes are difficult to observe after this age, according to the employment and labor institute. 'While it is important to understand what proportion of youth are currently in a resting status, it is even more critical to identify how long each individual will remain in that state,' the Korea Labor Institute said in the report, explaining that a comprehensive measure to tackle the economically inactive population might not effectively respond to declining willingness to participate in labor among young Koreans.
Korea Herald
06-07-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
More young Koreans opt out of job market, report finds
More young South Koreans are disengaging from the labor market, with fewer expressing the desire to work over the past decade, according to a new report by the state-run Korea Labor Institute. The report, released in late June, analyzes a decade of data from 2015 to 2024 based on Statistics Korea's annual survey of the economically inactive population — focusing on individuals aged 19 to 39 who are not actively seeking employment. Amid the rise of the 'economically inactive population,' which refers to those aged 15 or older who are unable or unwilling to work, the Korea Labor Institute noted that 77 percent reported having no intention to find a job. About 20 percent expressed the willingness to work but had not engaged in activities related to a job search within the past four weeks, according to the report. The same report highlighted that the percentage of those who said they would be able to work if offered a job decreased significantly from 54 percent to 31 percent during the same period between 2015 to 2024. The institute explained that this sharp drop could be attributed to the impact of COVID-19. The Korea Labor Institute identified resting, education and child care as the top three reasons for youth economic inactivity over the past decade. Though the report did not disclose exact numbers for the individual data, it stated that the share of younger people engaged in child care dropped sharply from 26.8 percent to 13.8 percent over the decade. But those categorized as resting doubled from 10.5 percent to 20 percent. The proportion of those attending school remained relatively stable over the 10-year period. The report noted that youth economic activity tends to stabilize after the age of 26. While many young people experience repeated unemployment with short-term jobs until their mid-20s, they tend to fall into two different groups by ages 25 or 26: one that stabilizes into employment and another that shifts into long-term economic inactivity due to lack of work experience. Though transitions in employment status are frequent before 28, significant changes are difficult to observe after this age, according to the employment and labor institute. 'While it is important to understand what proportion of youth are currently in a resting status, it is even more critical to identify how long each individual will remain in that state,' the Korea Labor Institute said in the report, explaining that a comprehensive measure to tackle the economically inactive population might not effectively respond to declining willingness to participate in labor among young Koreans.
Korea Herald
23-04-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Over 81% of coffee shops, 62% of franchise branches have no regular days off: data
1 in 5 workers in South Korea are self-employed Some 62.7 percent of the franchise branches spanning 15 major fields in South Korea were found to have no regular closing days around the year, a recent analysis of the government data showed Wednesday. As of 2023, there were 270,086 businesses affiliated with franchises spanning convenience stores, eateries, bars, medical supply stores, beauty salons and other sectors of the service industry, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service of the Statistics Korea. But the agency's analysis on the franchise business showed that 169,364 of them did not have regular days off beyond government-designated holidays. This excludes the headquarters of each franchise and any stores directly operated by the corporation. It only includes businesses that have acquired a license to operate under the specific franchise. Nearly all (99.2 percent) of these convenience stores, many of which are conventionally operated around the clock, have no set days on which they close, with 99.7 percent of them being run more than 14 hours a day. Around 81.4 percent of the shops selling coffee and nonalcoholic beverages had no regular holidays, followed by 78.3 percent of bakeries and 59.5 percent of pizza, hamburger and sandwich eateries. Next on the list were: bars (56.8 percent), foreign cuisine restaurants (52.1 percent), retailers specializing in glasses and contact lenses (52 percent) and Korean cuisine restaurants (48.4 percent). Car repair shops (2.8 percent) and retailers for medicine and medical supplies (12.1 percent), as well as laundry shops (28.8 percent) were the lowest on the list. Small business owners work longer hours A substantial number of the franchise shops operate for a daily average of 14 hours or more, 72,972 in all or 27 percent. Bakeries were most likely to have long work hours, 34.3 percent open for 14 hours or longer a day, followed by those in the laundry business (24.3 percent), coffee and nonalcoholic beverages (19.1 percent) and shops selling stationary and painting supplies (18.8 percent). The long operating hours of franchises do not necessarily correspond to the work hours for everyone working there, but reports do show that self-employed people in Korea work for longer hours than salaried employees do. Self-employed conventionally refers to the owners of a relatively small business -- a category which most of franchise shop owners fall under. A 2024 report by the Korea Labor Institute showed self-employed people with at least one employee worked for an average of 48.8 hours a week in August 2023, substantially longer than the 41.4 hours of salaried employees during that period. It also showed that people running a one-person business worked for 45.5 hours a week. In comparison, the standard work hours in South Korea are 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, with maximum of 12 hours of overtime work. Roughly one in five working people in Korea are self-employed, with Statistics Korea data showing that 5.66 million out of the 28.62 million workers (19.8 percent) were self-employed. According to a Bank of Korea report in March, self-employed people in Korea were making an average of 41.57 million won ($29,000) a year as of 2023, up from 41.31 million won in the previous year but not on the level of the 42.42 million in 2019, before the COVID 19 pandemic hit. Statistics Korea's data shows that salaried employees in Korea made an average of 3.63 million a month in 2023, which is 43.56 million won a year.
Korea Herald
30-03-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
1 in 3 wage workers over 55 earns less than minimum wage: study
More than one-third of Korean wage workers over the age of 55 earn a monthly income lower than that of a full-time employee on minimum wage, a report showed Sunday. The report, released by the state-funded Korea Labor Institute, analyzed the employment conditions of low-income senior workers, including their job status and paths to employment. The minimum wage in 2025 is set at 10,030 won ($6.83) per hour, which for a full-time worker, translates to a monthly income of 2,096,270 won. In 2023, about 33 percent of workers aged 55 and older were earning less than that amount per month, which is more than 10 percentage points above the all-age average of 20.2 percent. In both the overall workforce and among senior wage earners, the proportion of low-income female workers was double that of their male counterparts. 'Given South Korea's senior income guarantee system, tailored policy support is needed to help older workers earn an adequate income in each stage of their lives,' the report said. 'Extending the duration of work in primary jobs is the most effective way to reduce income loss, though rehiring by the same employer also helps mitigate income decline better than reemployment in a different job.'
