[한국대학신문 허정윤 기자] Data proved that the job market was frozen due to Corona 19. Last month, the number of job seekers recorded 853,000, the highest ever. Among them, there were 760,000 young people in their 20s and 30 years old and preparing for college employment, an increase of more than 70,000 compared to last year.
According to the employment trend of the National Statistical Office released on the 21st, among the inactive population last month, the number of people who are ready for employment was 853,000, an increase of 10.8% (83,000) from this time of last year. This has a great implication as it recorded the maximum as of February since 2003 when related statistics were prepared.
By age group, those in their twenties accounted for the largest number with 589,000, followed by those in their thirties with 171,000. With 89% of the youth in the 20s and 30s, the difficulty of’youth job search’ is confirmed by statistics.
Compared to last year, the number of job seekers in their twenties increased by 50,000 (9.3%) to 589,000, and those in their thirties increased by 24,000 (16.3%) to 171,000. By gender, there were 472,000 male job seekers and 381,000 female. Among them, the number of female job seekers in their 20s increased by 35,000 and the number of female job candidates in their 30s increased by 6,000 during a year. The number of job seekers for men in their twenties increased by 15,000 and those in their thirties increased by 18,000.
Kim Kyung-hee, head of the employment statistics department at the Statistical Office, analyzed, “As the recruitment was delayed due to the corona situation or the recruitment procedure was changed from regular recruitment to regular recruitment, the number of job seekers increased.”
Employment preparers mean those who take lectures at academies, institutions, etc. for employment, or who have prepared for other employment, meaning that the number of people who are challenging’employment’ is that much. However, the current situation is more serious. This is because the number of NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training), who gave up job hunting at all, also surged.
According to the report, based on the non-economically active population of youth aged 15 to 29, those who are single and classified as “just taking a break” without falling under the circumstances such as childrearing, housework, attending school, mental and physical disabilities, employment, preparation for school, and waiting for military service are called Neat. Stipulated.
According to a report published by the Hyundai Research Institute of Korea, the number of domestic Nit people reached 436,000 as of last year, an increase of 24.2% (about 85,000 people) from 2019. The proportion of the Neit people in the total youth population also increased by 2.1 percentage points from 2.8% in 2016 to 4.9% in 2020.
The number of Nits with more than a vocational college graduate also increased significantly. In particular, the proportion of professional college graduates or higher in the entire Neat group increased from 59.6% in 2019 to 63.0% in 2020. The number of NITs with a vocational college degree or higher has increased by 103,000 over four years from 172,000 in 2016 to 275,000 last year. The number of NITs under high school graduates also rose from 90,000 to 161,000 during the same period, but the increase (71,000) was relatively smaller than that of the group with a vocational college graduate or higher.
The Hyundai Research Institute said, “If the number of unemployed young people increases and this phenomenon is prolonged, it may lead to a deterioration in welfare level due to a decrease in lifetime income. In addition, it is necessary to prepare countermeasures as it can increase side effects such as increasing the burden on the parents’ generation, causing social costs, and lowering the potential growth rate.”