More Doctors, Fewer Teachers Needed in Future Job Market

The number of doctors, nurses and other health professionals will grow by around 100,000 by 2025, while schoolteachers and instructors at private crammers will dwindle by around 30,000, a state-run research institute forecasts.

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The Korea Employment Information Service said in a report Monday that the health and medical profession has the brightest outlook in terms of job growth.

The number of required nurses will increase by 57,700 or at an annual rate of 2.5 percent, of doctors by 21,500 or 2.4 percent year, alternative medicine practitioners by 4,400 or 2.3 percent and dentists by 3,600 or 2.3 percent.

Jobs for pharmacists and lab technicians are also expected to grow between one and two percent a year.

A KEIS staffer said, "This is due to increasing financial support by the government and greater need for medical treatment in an aging society".

But the low birthrate means there will be fewer and fewer jobs in education. Demand for instructors at private tutoring businesses is expected to decline at the fastest clip by 20,000, followed by elementary school teachers (down 7,500), junior high school teachers (down 7,100) and university professors (down 3,400).

Only the number of kindergarten teachers is expected to rise by some 2,000 as more mothers join the workforce.

Growing fears about public safety are expected to lead to an increase of about 16,000 police jobs and 5,500 firefighting jobs, but there will be less demand for bank tellers, stockbrokers, forex dealers and other financial professionals as their business becomes automated and moves online.

KEIS said more software developers specializing in the Internet of Things, self-driving cars, virtual reality and mobile technology will also be needed as the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution progresses apace.