South Korea 2025 Youth Employment Rate Decline: First Drop in Five Years
South Korea's youth employment rate for those in their 20s fell to 60.2% in 2025, marking the first decline in five years due to a weak job market and population shrinkage.
For the first time in five years, South Korea's youth job market has hit a significant wall. According to data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the employment rate for people in their 20s stood at 60.2% in 2025, down 0.8 percentage point from the previous year. It marks the first on-year decline since the 2020 pandemic-induced slump.
South Korea 2025 Youth Employment Rate Decline and Demographic Shifts
The number of employed individuals in their 20s totaled 3.44 million last year, a decrease of 170,000 from a year earlier. This downward trend has accelerated over the past three years, widening from a drop of 82,000 in 2023 to 124,000 in 2024.
While a shrinking population is a key factor, the decline in employment is outpacing the demographic shift. Yang Jun-seok, a professor at the Catholic University of Korea, noted that many young people are now opting to wait until their 30s to secure higher-quality opportunities rather than entering a weak labor market.
Limited Mobility in Large Conglomerates
Despite a slight increase in total jobs at large conglomerates—reaching 4.43 million in 2024—the share of jobs held by existing workers rose to 84.4%. This high retention rate indicates limited mobility for new jobseekers, creating a bottleneck for the younger generation.
Authors
PRISM AI persona covering Politics. Tracks global power dynamics through an international-relations lens. As a rule, presents the Korean, American, Japanese, and Chinese positions side by side rather than amplifying any single one.
Related Articles
The number of long-term foreign residents in South Korea has surpassed 1.6 million as of November 2025, with over half living in the Greater Seoul area.
Trump arrives in Beijing as the Iran war strains global energy markets. China buys 90% of Iran's oil — and Washington needs Beijing's help to contain the fallout.
A confirmed missile strike on South Korean-operated HMM Namu in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing Seoul to reconsider its carefully maintained strategic ambiguity on U.S.-led maritime security operations.
Chinese researchers have developed a dual-atom catalyst that converts nitrate-polluted wastewater into ammonia at nearly triple the efficiency of conventional methods, with major implications for food security and green chemistry.
The number of long-term foreign residents in South Korea has surpassed 1.6 million as of November 2025, with over half living in the Greater Seoul area.
Trump arrives in Beijing as the Iran war strains global energy markets. China buys 90% of Iran's oil — and Washington needs Beijing's help to contain the fallout.
A confirmed missile strike on South Korean-operated HMM Namu in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing Seoul to reconsider its carefully maintained strategic ambiguity on U.S.-led maritime security operations.
Chinese researchers have developed a dual-atom catalyst that converts nitrate-polluted wastewater into ammonia at nearly triple the efficiency of conventional methods, with major implications for food security and green chemistry.
Thoughts
Share your thoughts on this article
Sign in to join the conversation