SEOUL – Over 1.26 million young South Koreans are unemployed, with more than half possessing a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to government data showed on Sunday.

As at May, there were 8.41 million people aged 15 to 29 in the country, according to supplementary results of the Economically Active Population Survey for the Young Population in May 2023 by Statistics Korea.

Of these, 4.52 million had either graduated from or are not currently attending elementary school, middle school, high school or college. Of all school graduates, 1.26 million are unemployed.

Of the 1.26 million individuals without a job, 53.8 percent, or some 678,000 young people, hold a college degree or higher. Those with a high school education or lower accounted for 46.2 per cent.

Among the unemployed population, 40.9 per cent were preparing for vocational training and employment tests, state government exams, civil service exams and company recruitment tests. On the other hand, 25.4 per cent were not engaged in any job-seeking activities.

The number of young people currently not attending school or college with employment experience stood at 3.94 million.

It took 10.4 months on average for such individuals to get their first job. Some 324,000 people, or 8.4 per cent of survey respondents, took more than three years to get a job.

Among those who are employed, only 50.6 per cent of them said their job closely corresponds to their major.

The share of the young adult female population with job experience, 45.5 per cent, was higher than that of the young male population with job experience, which stood at 40.7 per cent. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK