High school job seekers take part in on-site interviews during the 2025 Youth Good Job Fair Season 6, held at the SW Convergence Tech-Biz Center in Suseong Alpha City, Suseong District, Daegu, on September 23. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean high school graduates who fail to secure employment within three months of finishing school face dramatically lower chances of landing stable, well-paying jobs, according to new research released Thursday.
The study, conducted by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), analyzed 792 high school graduates who did not pursue college for 18 months following their 2021 graduation.
Of them, 66.2 percent found employment between their final semester and three months after graduation. But only 35.5 percent of those workers obtained what the study defined as “decent jobs” — positions offering regular employment, social insurance coverage, and pay above 60 percent of the median wage.
By contrast, roughly one in three graduates remained unemployed a year and a half after finishing school, and two-thirds failed to find stable, quality employment.
The data showed a steep decline in opportunities after the initial three-month window. The likelihood of securing a decent job dropped from 4.92 percent immediately after graduation to 2.39 percent within four months, then fell to around 1 percent thereafter.
“The findings suggest that gaining career and job-related experience during high school directly and significantly affects one’s chances of obtaining quality employment,” said researcher Keum Jong-ye, who led the study. “The strategy of delaying employment to build credentials after graduation appears to be largely ineffective.”
Keum attributed the low rate of stable employment among high school graduates to both structural and educational factors — limited availability of quality entry-level jobs and a shortage of adequately prepared candidates.
To counter this, the report recommends early and tailored interventions, such as expanding career education from the start of high school, establishing dual-track systems for students preparing for college or employment, and providing practical, skills-based training for those seeking immediate jobs.
“The current school curriculum is not flexible enough to keep up with the labor market’s demands,” Keum said. “Continuous teacher training and adaptive career programs are essential if we want to connect education with real employment outcomes.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
