Ahn-Kook Kim (KRIVET)
The Transition from School to Work of Youth College
Graduates
}
1. Korean youth employment
}
2. Korean youth economic activities
}
3. Supply and demand of youth labor by education levels
}
4. The labor market mismatch for highly educated youth
}
5. Now in Korea
1990-2009 OECD countries employment rates (15~24 years old)
4
} The OECD average youth employment rates is a little above 40%.
} The countries’ youth employment rates are broadly distributed.
} English’s youth employment rate is the highest.
} Korea’s youth employment rate has been decreasing from 2003.
} Now Korea’s youth employment rate is 22.9%, and the lowest.
Korea’s Employment growth rate, youth
employment growth rate and GDP growth rate (1980-2009)
6
} Korea’s GDP growth rate has been decreasing from the end of 1980’s.
} The employment growth rate has been also decreasing from the end of 1980’s.
} The bredth of youth employment growth rate’s change is large, it means youth
employment might be effected more severely than adult’s employment.
} Especially in Korea, the youth employment growth rate is going on minus, and the
employment growth gap between adult and youth also has been enlarged from 2000.
Year Employment Unemployment
inactivities
total Difficult to find a Housework job
/infant care School ready for getting a
job jobless Other
economic inactivity
1991 5,496(45.3) (2.6)314 1,694(14.0) 4,363(36.0) - - (2.1)254 12,121(100.0) (2.6)314 1997 5,349(45.6) (2.7)322 1,317(11.2) 4,432(37.8) - - (2.6)305 11,724(100.0) (2.7)322 1998 4,733(40.6) (6.1)711 1,335(11.5) 4,496(38.6) - - (3.2)377 11,651(100.0) (6.1)711
2000 4,879
(43.4) 430
(3.8) 1,144
(10.2) 4,297
(38.2) - - 494
(4.4) 11,243
(100.0) 430 (3.8) 2002 4,799
(45.1) 361
(3.4) 928
(8.7) 4,044
(38.0) - - 520
(4.9) 10,651
(100.0) 361 (3.4) 2004 4,578
(45.1) 412
(4.1) 701
(6.9) 3,704
(36.5) 297
(2.9) 258
(2.5) 191
(1.9) 10,141
(100.0) 966 (9.5) 2006 4,270
(43.4) 364
(3.7) 530
(5.4) 3,865
(39.3) 413
(4.2) 258
(2.6) 143
(1.5) 9,843
(100.0) 1,035 (10.5) 2008 4,084(41.6) (3.2)315 (4.9)484 4,114(41.9) (4.6)455 (2.5)249 (1.2)122 (100.0)9,822 1,018(10.4) 2009 3,957(40.5) (3.6)347 (4.8)471 4,156(42.5) (4.4)429 (3.0)297 (1.3)124 (100.0)9,780 1,073(11.0)
Trends of Youth’s(15-29) Economic activities
9
} Korean Youth population has been reduced from 1990’s
} In 2009, Korean youth from 15 years to 29 years old were mainly in the state of
employment(40.5%) or study(42.5%).
} The number of Korean youth has been
decreasing steadily from 5.5 million to 4.0 million.
} Even though the ratio of unemployment was 3.6% somewhat low, but ‘jobless’ and ‘ready for getting a job’ groups are hard to get
works, so we can regard them as looking for a job, then job seeking youth portion goes up to 11%.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000
0세 10세 20세 30세 40세 50세 60세 65세
Population profile of Korea(2010)
11
The reduction of the youth employment number comes from the curtailment of the youth population.
Several peaks were caused by baby boomers.
A middle school graduate or
lower
A high school
graduate 2 year college
graduate 4 year college
graduate total
1991 259
(13.6) 1,245
(65.6) 157
(8.3) 237
(12.5) 1,898
(100.0)
1995 106
(5.6) 1,268
(66.7) 234
(12.3) 292
(15.4) 1,901
(100.0)
1998 39
(2.6) 919
(60.7) 274
(18.1) 282
(18.6) 1,514
(100.0)
2000 43
(2.4) 1,033
(57.0) 403
(22.2) 334
(18.4) 1,813
(100.0)
2005 16
(0.9) 708
(40.0) 506
(28.5) 541
(30.5) 1,771
(100.0)
2006 15
(0.8) 670
(36.9) 558
(30.7) 575
(31.6) 1,818
(100.0)
2007 20
(1.1) 626
(34.6) 574
(31.7) 591
(32.6) 1,812
(100.0)
2008 18
(1.0) 595
(32.3) 584
(31.7) 643
(35.0) 1,840
(100.0)
The Trends of the number of youth(15-29) employee by education levels
13
} This table is made on the occupational wage survey by employment labor minister.
} The occupational wage survey investigate only regular employees, but the numbers represent the industry demand for youth.
} This talbe shows us
} 1) middle school graduate’s portion reduced continuously, became only 1% in 2008.
} 2) ratio of high school graduates diminished from 66% to 32%.
} 3) number of college graduates has increased 2.5 times.
Year The number of
Graduates 2 year college 4 year college
1999 748 159
(21.3) 339
(45.4)
2001 736 172
(23.4) 347
(47.1)
2003 590 129
(21.8) 342
(57.9)
2005 569 132
(23.2) 336
(59.0)
2007 571 138
(24.2) 335
(58.6)
2009 576 149
(25.9) 323
(56.0)
The entering college ratio after high school, by year.
15
} In Korea, youth have chosen more tertiary education year by year.
} The ratio of entering college and university was over 80% from 2003.
} So the highly educated youth labor supply is increasing.
} What happen? What will happen?
The proportion of supply to demand of the university graduates
18
} The upper lines of each graph are the
proportion of demand to supply of university graduate youth on the base of employment, the other lines are on the base of
economically active population.
} The upper line is one, if demand equal
supply. The upper line is over one, if demand is more than supply.
}
Korean university graduate youth supply became more than demand from 2003.
}
Then some Korean university graduate youth went to the jobs which are
suitable to high school graduates.
Year Large Companies (300 more)
Financial
Sectors Public Services
1993 2,567 692 885
1996 2,698 785 910
1998 2,041 663 871
2000 1,637 614 852
2006 1,914 616 940
2007 2,046 639 963
2008 2,179 666 953
The Trends of the Employment Scales in Large companies, Public services and Financial Sectors.
20
} Even though the youth have a high level of education, the number of job that they want to get has been decreasing or stagnant.
} Highly educated youth want to get decent
jobs which are provided by large companies, financial sector, and public services.
} But these jobs had peak in 1996, those numbers had reduced after IMF crisis.
} As a result, jobs that college graduates want to get do not increase as the number of
college graduates are increasing.
24
8
21
18
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007
Trend of the recruitment scale of large companies
22
The scale of large companies’ recruitment were 23-24 thousands people in 1990’s, but it has drastically diminished just after IMF and recovered the recruitment scale gradually.
} College students try to pick up the specs for getting a job.
} College students and graduates are preparing examination for a decent job.
} Some graduates are in the shift down employment
} Some graduates return to school which provide vocational technical training.
} College graduate youth has a lot of difficulties to get a job.
