A graduate pupil attends a commencement ceremony at Seoul Nationwide College, Feb. 26. Yonhap
Three out of 10 individuals who obtained Ph.D. final yr had been unemployed, with the ratio going as much as almost 50 p.c for these aged beneath 30, information confirmed, Sunday.
The unemployment charge of Ph.D. holders is at an all-time excessive since Statistics Korea started gathering the information in 2014, highlighting a scarcity of high quality jobs and the widening impression of the job market downturn on extremely educated professionals.
Based on the information, 70.4 p.c of the ten,442 people who obtained a Ph.D. final yr stated they secured a job. Those that failed to seek out employment accounted for 26.6 p.c, whereas 3 p.c had been categorized as economically inactive.
The unemployment charge — combining the ratio of individuals failing to discover a job and that of economically inactive folks — remained within the mid-20 p.c vary from 2014 (24.5 p.c) to 2018 (25.9 p.c) however jumped to 29.3 p.c in 2019 and reached a document excessive of 29.6 p.c in 2024.
By age-group, among the many 537 respondents beneath 30 who earned a doctorate, 47.7 p.c had been unemployed — the best charge because the survey started.
Unemployment charges additionally various by subject of examine, with arts and humanities graduates experiencing the best charge of 40.1 p.c. This was adopted by pure sciences, arithmetic and statistics at 37.7 p.c, and social sciences, journalism and knowledge research at 33.1 p.c.
In distinction, fields equivalent to well being and welfare, training, enterprise, administration and legislation confirmed comparatively decrease unemployment charges.
This pattern underscores the scarcity of high-quality, well-paying jobs even for extremely educated people. Korea’s job market has weakened as a consequence of rising financial uncertainty, main firms to prioritize hiring skilled employees over new jobseekers.
Considerations are rising that the downturn might speed up. In 2023, a report by the Financial institution of Korea acknowledged, „Synthetic intelligence’s means to carry out non-repetitive, cognitive analytical duties suggests a better threat of automation for high-skilled, high-income jobs.“
