A jobseeker looking over wanted notices employment fair in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The economic cost of losing employment opportunities for the NEETs, who are unemployed young people not in education, employment or training, amounts to 49.4 trillion won (US$41.4 billion) a year, or 2.7 percent of South Korea’s GDP, according to a recent report.
The portion of NEETs among young people in South Korea has been on the rise since 2015, the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said in a report released Tuesday.
The report suggested that the proportion of NEETs among young people, aged from 15 to 29, was 16.2 percent in 2014, but rose to 21.2 percent in 2017.
Researchers also said the annual economic cost of the NEETs, based on market gains, stood at 34.7 trillion won in 2010 and rose to 49.4 trillion won in 2017.
The ratio of the economic cost of the NEETs to GDP hit 2.6 percent in 2010, and rose to 2.7 percent in 2017.
The raise is attributed to an increase in the expected income of NEETs and an increase in the portion of NEETs from 2015, which also resulted in an increase in the economic cost of all the NEETs.
The KERI said its analysis of NEET characteristics showed that the proportion of male NEETs had increased, and is now higher than that of women.
When breaking down the results by academic background, the proportion of the NEETs among university graduates was relatively higher, especially for those with four-year or higher university degrees, with the portion of NEETs exceeding 30 percent.
Meanwhile, the portion of the NEETs decreased for those with parents who had a higher educational background, and the higher the household income, the lower the portion of the NEETs.
Furthermore, young people who had never been employed were less likely to be NEETs than young people who had. The proportion of the NEETs was low in groups with experience in vocational training.
“The youth unemployment rate felt by young people reached more than 21 percent after 2018, which requires the government to pay attention to the NEETs,” said Yoo Jin-sung, head of the KERI.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
