Unemployment Rate For South Koreans Under 20 Hits All-Time High

The unemployment rate among South Koreans between the ages of 15 and 19 is higher than ever, according to a new report Wednesday by Statistics Korea, the country's official data agency.

The 12.5 unemployment rate for teens is a 1.4 percent increase from last year, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.

"Those who applied for entry-level government jobs during January and February rose to 223,000, which is 30,000 more compared to last year's applicants," explained Lee Ho Seung, director general of the economic policy bureau in the Finance Ministry.

"The unemployment rate of the young rose partially because these applicants were considered unemployed and categorized as people still searching for work when the survey was conducted."

Lee added that February is often an annual low point for job availability among young employment-seekers, due to the amount of students graduating from college at the end of the previous year.

The data for older candidates would appear to support that claim, as unemployment among South Korean citizens 60 and older dropped 5 percent from the year before. Additionally, of the 337,000 people hired in South Korea in February, 70 percent of the applicants were over 50.

According to Ryu Sang Yoon, a senior analyst at the LG Economic Research Institute, the issue of unemployment among young people is part of a trend not unlike what Japan experienced two decades ago.

"The unemployment rate for youth in Japan continued to rise more than 10 years since its [asset] bubble burst in the early 1990s," he said

 "The unemployment rate fell slightly after 2003 largely because of a shrinking youth population. But by quality, it did not improve. The situation that Korea faces today, including growth and its population, is very similar to that of Japan two decades ago. If we fail to recover our growth potential, youth unemployment will continue for quite a long time."