The signboards of small shops in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — With the job market still sluggish due to the spread of the coronavirus, an increasing number of young people are choosing to take matters into their own hands and launch their own businesses.
The number of young people aged between the ages of 15 and 29 who were self-employed without employees was up by 5 percent in February compared to last year, according to a report from the Korea Employment Information Service.
They represent ‘self-employed single-person’ owners who have no employees.
By type of business, accommodation and restaurant businesses marked the highest growth of 33.7 percent in the number of such self-employed young people, followed by IT businesses at 32.7 percent and art, sport, leisure and service-related business at 29.1 percent.
The number of young people with permanent employment contracts grew by 1.4 percent in February after sliding for 12 straight months starting from February 2020 when the pandemic first started to impact the job market.
In contrast, the number of self-employed young people has been on an upward trend since October 2019, excluding January 2021 (-3 percent).
The report said that if young people at the beginning of their careers start as self-employed without entering the high-quality job market, chances are high that they could miss the most opportune time to enter the job market and be stuck in the blind spot of social security.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
