(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Jul. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of unemployed college graduates in South Korea hit a record in the second quarter amid tightened job markets for young adults, government data showed Saturday.
The number of jobless people with a bachelor’s degree and above reached 546,000 in the April-June period, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
It marked the largest quarterly figure since 1999 when the agency changed its calculation standard for compiling jobless data.
Unemployed people mean those who are seeking jobs, but have not been hired.
In the cited period, the portion of unemployed college graduates accounted for 50.5 percent of 1.08 million total jobless people, the data showed.
It also marked the first time that the ratio surpassed the 50-percent mark, indicating that frozen job markets have aggravated unemployment for college graduates in South Korea.
South Korea’s jobless rate stood at 3.8 percent in June, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier, according to the state statistics agency.
The unemployment rate for young people aged between 25 and 29 was 10.1 percent as of end-June, up from 9.4 percent tallied a year earlier and from May’s 8.6 percent.
Amid frozen job markets, unemployed college graduates are hoping to land more skilled and sophisticated jobs, delaying their employment and widening the disparity between labor supply and demand, experts said.
South Korea is pushing for an 11.2 trillion won (US$9.99 billion) supplementary budget aimed at creating jobs and boosting the economy, a key pledge by President Moon Jae-in.
(Yonhap)
