Unemployment Drives Young Koreans Overseas

Published on 2016/08/28 | Source

Growing numbers of young Koreans head overseas in search of work amid steadily rising youth unemployment, which hit 10.6 percent in the first seven months of this year.

According to the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, 2,903 Koreans went overseas to work last year, almost double the number in 2014, and in the first seven months of this year the number already stood at 1,528.

The types of jobs available for young Koreans and the host countries are diversifying.

More IT specialists and medical technicians found jobs abroad, from 215 in 2013 to 890 last year.

Over the same period, the number of financial experts and accountants who found work abroad also rose from 307 to 890.

But in service sector jobs numbers are shrinking, from 792 in 2013 to 644 last year, down about 20 percent. And the number of technical service workers fell from 154 to 68.

Of the 7,717 Koreans who found jobs abroad between 2013 and 2015, those working in the service sector still accounted for the largest proportion with 28.5 percent, but were followed closely by office workers with 28.2 percent and professionals with 24 percent.

"Three years ago, there was a lot of demand for construction workers and welders in Australia and Canada, but now there's more demand for IT, medical and financial workers in Japan, Singapore and the U.S"., an HRDS staffer said.

Some 307 Koreans found jobs in Australia in 2013, 296 in Japan and 219 in Canada. But in 2015, 640 Koreans found work in the U.S., 632 in Japan and 364 in Singapore.

Koreans are heading to more and more countries, from 40 in 2014 to 67, ranging from Vietnam to Senegal.

Park Young-bin (26) found a job with a U.S. trading company in Ethiopia. "I want to get as much experience as I can and become an expert in doing business in Africa", he says.

Wages have also risen as more professionals head overseas. In 2013, 232 people who went overseas made less than W15 million a year (US$1=W1,126). But last year just 19 made that little, and 1,141 made more than W25 million, up from 746 in 2013.