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200,000 Middle-Aged Koreans Still Live off Parents

Nearly 200,000 middle-aged Koreans were doing nothing in particular with their lives last year, often living off their parents.

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According to a recent study by the Korea Labor Institute, 195,000 people in their 40s are classified as "not in education, employment or training" or NEET. The term originally referred to people between 15 to 34 who are single, unemployed and not attending school, but the institute included those in their 40s in the study based on 18 years of economic activity data from Statistics Korea.

People in their 20s still accounted for the largest number of NEETs, but the proportion is rising sharply among people in their 30s and 40s.

The number of NEETs in their 20s jumped a whopping 144.3 percent from 318,000 in 2000 to 777,000 last year. But over the same period, the number in their 30s soared 348.5 percent from 68,000 to 305,000, and among those in their 40s, it surged almost 500 percent from 33,000 to 195,000.

"It's quite shocking that almost 200,000 40-somethings, who are supposed to be most active age group in the economy, are not even looking for jobs".

The surge among 30-somethings was in many cases due to people who lost their jobs or gave up looking for jobs in their 30s, and NEETs in their 40s were mostly people who remained unable to escape the predicament.

"The rise in the number of middle-aged NEETs appears to be closely related to having fallen into the trap when they were young".

One NEET who lives in southern Seoul turns 32 next year but has no experience whatsoever working for money. After graduating from high school, he spent over a decade at home without looking for work or trying to get a university education.

"I feel bad about relying on my parents for money at this age, but there's nothing I can do", he said. "I just lived day-to-day and suddenly I was over 30".

Once in the trap, it is very hard to get out of since employers take a dim view of older applicants without experience in an already crowded job market.

The number of employed people in their 40s has declined for 49 months running after peaking at 6.97 million in 2015. And six out of 10 middle-aged people who did find work then made less than W2 million a month (US$1=W1,164).

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