SOUTH KOREA
The most sought-after careers among South Korean teenagers and young adults are in the Public Service, analysts have found.
The researchers say it’s a symptom of the nation’s slowing economic growth and competition from China in export-driven industries. As a result young people are flocking to what they consider risk-free Government jobs not vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the economy.
For more than three years, Kim Ju-hee has been studying full time for the Public Service examination.
She’s lost count of how many times she’s taken the test and failed — though she thinks it’s been at least 10.
The 26-year-old is not sure what she’ll do if she fails again, so she figures that spending more than eight hours a day studying for her next try, on April 6, makes sense.
Ms Kim hopes to become a Government tax clerk and work for the Government until retirement.
“There just aren’t other good jobs,” Ms Kim said.
These attitudes are particularly concerning because it was private companies in sectors like electronics, cars and shipbuilding that fuelled South Korea’s rapid growth from one of the world’s poorest nations in the 1960s into an economic powerhouse.
However, many young people in South Korea say they don’t expect non-Government job prospects to improve anytime soon despite a host of measures announced by South Korean President, Moon Jae-in nearly a year ago to boost employment, including Government stipends to companies.
The desire for stability and security starts so young that one in four primary school students say they dream of one day getting a public sector job.
Competition for South Korea’s 1.07 million Government jobs is fierce. In one round of examinations Ms Kim took last year, more than 200,000 people applied, and the 4,953 highest-scoring candidates were hired, an acceptance rate of 2.4 per cent
Seoul, 18 February, 2019
