SEOUL, January 20 (AJP) - The number of economically inactive or “idled” young people in South Korea has risen sharply, with a growing share abandoning job searches, underscoring mounting risks to the country’s long-term growth potential, the central bank said on Tuesday.
According to a report from the Bank of Korea (BOK), the proportion of the idled population within the economically inactive group climbed to 15.8 percent in 2025, up from 12.8 percent in 2019. The trend is most pronounced among young people, where the idled share surged to 22.3 percent last year from 14.6 percent in 2019.
The report showed that the number of idled individuals with prior work experience jumped 32.5 percent over the period, rising from 360,000 in 2019 to 477,000 in 2025.
By contrast, the number of young people without any work experience who fall into the "NEET" category — not in education, employment or training — remained broadly unchanged at around 100,000. The data suggest that those who have already entered the labor market are increasingly likely to exit and fail to return.
The number of so-called “resting” youth — individuals who reported having no desire to work — also rose sharply, reaching 450,000 last year, a 56.8 percent increase from 287,000 in 2019.
While people with an associate degree or lower continue to account for about 60 percent of the idled youth population, the number of university graduates and those with higher education who are “just resting” has been steadily increasing, the BOK said.
The central bank found a strong link between prolonged unemployment and permanent labor market exit. Each additional year of unemployment raises the probability of a young person becoming idled by an average of 4 percent, while reducing the likelihood of finding a job by 3.1 percent.
“The increase in the idled youth population poses a risk of shrinking the long-term labor supply and weakening South Korea’s potential growth,” the BOK report said.
“As the likelihood of labor market exit rises with the length of unemployment, it is crucial to implement measures that prevent prolonged stagnation among job seekers.”
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