It took over three years to get their first job, 360,000 youths say

For almost 360,000 youth, getting their first jobs took over three years. The average time required to land their first jobs is 10.8 months.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, 358,000 young people with job experience aged 15 to 29 have spent over three years until they found their first jobs as of May. Those who landed their first job two and three years after job hunting accounted for 275,000.

On average, it took 10.8 months for the youth with experience as salary workers (numbering 4,018,000) to find their first jobs. The time for the youth to prepare for employment is extended to 10.1 months in 2021 from 10 months in 2020. The young Not Currently Engaged in Education Employment or Training (NEET) who spent over three years unemployed and not preparing for employment reached 84,000.


Hye-Ryung Choi herstory@donga.com