A youth employment center in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Nearly half of unemployed young people in South Korea experience burnout, with career uncertainty cited as the leading cause, a new analysis has found. Burnout was particularly common among young people who had been searching for jobs for extended periods and those working in temporary or day labor jobs with less stable employment.The Federation of Korean Industries released an analysis Monday examining burnout among young people by employment status and wage-worker status, based on microdata from a 2024 survey on youth life conducted by the Office for Government Policy Coordination.According to the analysis, 52.7% of unemployed young people said they had experienced burnout, 1.6 times the rate among employed young people, at 32.4%. The burnout rate was highest among unemployed young people who had been looking for work for a year or more, at 61.8%. This was followed by those who had been job hunting for six months to a year (54.0%), three to six months (51.9%), and less than three months (46.6%).Burnout was also more prevalent among employed young people with less secure jobs. The burnout rate among young temporary workers and day laborers whose employment contracts lasted less than a year was 41.1%, significantly higher than the 29.6% recorded among regular workers with contracts of a year or longer.“The labor market conditions facing young people have been deteriorating, with the average time it takes to land a first paid job showing an upward trend over the past five years,” the federation said. “The difficulty of finding a job and employment insecurity appear to be exacerbating burnout among young people.”Career uncertainty was cited as the main cause of burnout by 68.4% of unemployed young people. Other reasons included disillusionment with work (9.9%) and an imbalance between work and personal life (7.1%).Career uncertainty was also the most commonly cited cause among temporary workers and day laborers at 57.0%, followed by excessive workloads (13.6%) and disillusionment with work (12.1%). The analysis suggested that unstable employment is increasing uncertainty about young people's future career paths, contributing to both physical and psychological exhaustion.The federation called for the government to strengthen active labor market policies, including vocational training and employment services, to help ease burnout stemming from career uncertainty among young people.It also recommended expanding financial support for job preparation, vocational training and employment counseling for unemployed and temporary young workers, as well as strengthening on-the-job training and psychological and emotional support, areas where Korea lags significantly behind the average among countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. By Park Jong-o, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
