Estimated 14,000 Young South Koreans Have Left The Country Over The Past 5 Years To Work Abroad Amid High Youth Unemployment Rate
South Korea's youth unemployment is still at critical levels that many job seekers are reportedly opting to find employment overseas.
In a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday, South Korea's unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent. As for job seekers aged 15 to 29, the number was down to 8.1 percent. This is the lowest unemployment rate the country has seen in the last two years and five months.
A total of 26.3 million people were employed in October, recording a massive improvement from the 348,000 tally in September, KBS World noted Wednesday.
Xinhua wrote Wednesday that a report from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development showed that 15 to 29 year olds had an improved employment rate at 41.7 percent, up by 1.1 percent from a year ago.
Despite this improvement, a growing number of South Koreans still choose to leave the country in search of greener pastures overseas.
Under the "K-Move" program, around 14,000 youths sought left South Korea to seek job opportunities in other countries in the past five years. The fact that many are still opting for overseas employment despite improving labor conditions in the country poses a challenge to the South Korean government to expand employment opportunities for young workers in their home country.
"Policy makers are trying, but there won't be much improvement in the job market for young adults unless exporters thrive again," said SK Research Institute economist Kim Hyeon Wook. "They're fighting to find good jobs, but these have already been taken by their fathers."
Through the K-Move website, young South Korean job hunters are connected to employers in 46 countries. Job opportunities posted on K-Move are from the fields of information technology, office administration and construction, to name a few.
A quarter of hires have been deployed to China. Australia comes in second with 2,931 jobs, followed by Canada with 2,326.
