Office workers head home for the day in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — About half of young South Korean workers were not satisfied with their income level, a survey showed Sunday.
The National Youth Policy Institute conducted a survey of 4,141 South Koreans between 19 and 34 years of age, and found that the annual income of the respondents averaged 22.23 million won (US$18,430).
Among the respondents, 41.4 percent said that their annual income was less than 20 million won, followed by 32.4 percent whose annual income ranged between 20 million won and 40 million won and 12.1 percent with an annual income ranging between 40 million won and 60 million won.
At 48.6 percent, almost half of the respondents said that they were not satisfied with their annual income, with the share of those who said they were satisfied with their annual income remaining low at 16.2 percent.
Almost two-thirds of the respondents said they didn’t have housing in their name, either owned or rented.
By age group, the share of those who said they don’t have their own home stood at 79.4 percent among those from 19 to 24, 62.9 percent among those aged from 25 to 29 and 51.7 percent among those aged from 30 to 34.
More than half of those who said they had their own home received financial support from parents or relatives.
In response to a question asking if they felt they were poor, 42.6 percent of the respondents said yes, more than two times higher than the 19.2 percent who said no.
Among those who said they were poor, 34.3 percent said chances were low for them to escape poverty, higher than 28.5 percent who said chances are high.
As for a question asking about the possibility for the nation’s poor young people to escape from poverty, 30.7 percent said that it was impossible, higher than 25.6 percent who said it was possible.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
