[LINK] "Youth Unemployment in Korea Is Pushing Some Job Seekers Abroad"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Cynthia Kim notes that high levels of youth unemployment in South Korea are encouraging emigration. The absolute numbers are low, barely breaching ten thousand, and aren't much of a surprise given the tradition of emigration established in South Korea. If things do not improve, though, there's obvious negative potential.

While the overall unemployment rate in Korea dropped to 3.4 percent in October, the figure for job seekers ages 15 to 29 was 8.1 percent, data from the national statistics office show.

The youth jobless rate reached 10.1 percent in June, the highest in 15 years, and has averaged almost 8 percent over the past decade.

The Takeaway: While young people aren’t fleeing Korea in droves -- about 14,000 have left under the “K-Move” program over the past five years -- this effort underscores Korea’s challenge in finding opportunities for young workers as the economy matures and the growth rate slows. The Eurozone is also grappling with the issue, with youth unemployment there exceeding 20 percent.

“Policy makers are trying, but there won’t be much improvement in the job market for young adults unless exporters thrive again,” said Kim Hyeon Wook, an economist at the SK Research Institute in Seoul. “They’re fighting to find good jobs, but these have already been taken by their fathers.”