Job seekers browse recruitment notices at the 2026 Midsized Companies Job Fair at the aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, March 31. Newsis
Yoon, 34, is not unemployed in the usual sense. He is not sending out resumes, sitting for interviews or preparing for another company exam. Officially, he belongs to a Korean labor market category known as “resting” — people who are neither working nor looking for a job.
An engineering major from a university in Seoul, Yoon had once hoped to join a large company in the automotive or semiconductor industry. In Korea, such jobs often mean positions at major corporations, including affiliates of family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebol, and are widely seen as offering higher pay and greater stability.
To improve his chances, Yoon retook the college entrance exam after completing his mandatory military service, believing that a stronger educational pedigree would help him compete. But the offers he received came only from small and medium-sized firms. He eventually started working at 30, reluctantly, but each look at his monthly wages left him discouraged.
“I decided to quit my job and prepare again for large companies because I thought that was the only realistic way to earn a higher salary,” Yoon said. “But after failing several times, I’m just staying at home.”
He said he is now considering pursuing a master’s degree.
Yoon is not alone. Some 770,000 young Koreans are estimated to be in a “resting” state, the highest number since records began, revealing a new major social concern in Korea.
To address the issue, a new government report offered a different view of why many young Koreans remain outside the labor market, suggesting that misperceptions about career paths and income may be playing a role.
The report found that entering a smaller company early in one’s career may be a better option than spending years preparing for a job at a large company in hopes of earning a higher salary right away. It called for policy support to help young people access reliable income information, including comprehensive wage data by industry and occupation.
The Hankook Ilbo obtained the report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor through Rep. Lee Yong-woo, a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Sunday. Commissioned by the ministry and conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET), the report examined the causes of job mismatch among young Koreans and proposed ways to improve long-term employment outcomes.
Source: Korea Times News
