Employment Among People in Their 20s Falls by 190,000, Steepest Drop Since Asian Financial Crisis

Employment among people in their 20s fell by more than 190,000 this year, marking the steepest decline since the Asian financial crisis (South Korea's 1997 financial crisis). It is a signal that jobs for young people are vanishing rapidly: according to the national statistics portal KOSIS, employed people in their 20s averaged 3.279 million per month from January to August this year, 193,000 fewer than in the same period last year. On a January–August monthly average basis, a drop of this magnitude is the first since 1998 (-550,000), when the fallout from the financial crisis was at its worst. The decline is even larger than during the global financial crisis in 2009 (-142,000) or the COVID-19 shock in 2020 (-111,000).

After rising for two consecutive years from 2021, employment among people in their 20s has since turned downward. The year-on-year decline widened from 91,000 in 2023 to 101,000 in 2024, 177,000 last year, and 193,000 this year.

The drop in employment was even larger than the decline in the population in their 20s. From January to August this year, the population in their 20s averaged 5.55 million per month, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier, but the employment figure fell by a steeper 5.6 percent. The employment rate for this age group stood at 59.1 percent this year, down 1.3 percentage points from last year. It is the first time in five years, since 2021, that the rate has dipped below 60 percent.

By age band, the decline was sharper among those in their early 20s. From January to August this year, monthly average employment among 20- to 24-year-olds was 924,000, down 114,000 from last year, and their employment rate fell 2.6 percentage points to 41.3 percent, the lowest for a January–August period since 2000. Over the same period, employment among 25- to 29-year-olds fell 78,000 to 2.355 million, with their employment rate down 0.8 percentage points to 71.1 percent.