A man visits a job placement office, run by the labor ministry, in Seoul on April 17, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of NEETs — people who are unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training — marked a sharp increase in South Korea as the job environment deteriorated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a report released on Sunday by the Hyundai Research Institute, the number of South Korean NEETs totaled 436,000 in 2020, up 24.2 percent or about 85,000 persons from a year ago.
Compared to 2016 (262,000 persons), last year’s figure represented about a 1.7-fold increase.
The report said that NEETs refer to young people aged between 15 and 29 who are unmarried and classified as economically inactive without being engaged in childcare, household work or employment.
The share of NEETs in the young generation (aged from 15 to 29 years old) also rose to 4.9 percent in 2020 from 2.8 percent in 2016.
By gender, the number of male NEETs totaled 245,000 in 2020, about 54,000 higher than female NEETs (191,000).
Of special note, the number of female NEETs shot up to 191,000 last year after hovering at about 100,000 over the past several years.
Accordingly, the share of women in the NEET population jumped to 43.7 percent last year from around 35 percent.
The number of NEETs with a degree higher than college-level education also sharply increased. The number of such NEETs jumped to 275,000 last year from 172,000 in 2016.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
