SEOUL, April 14 (AJP) — Young South Korean men are being squeezed out of the labor market at a notable pace amid increased competition from women and artificial intelligence, a study by the Bank of Korea showed Tuesday.
According to the central bank, the economic participation rate for men aged 25 to 34 fell from 89.9 percent in 2000 to 82.3 percent in 2025, in contrast to a steady average of around 89 percent from 1995 to 2024.
The downward trend is even more pronounced across generations. While Baby Boomers recorded participation rates around 90 percent and Generation X around 88 percent, the 82.3 percent rate for Millennials comes as a significant drop.
The BOK attributes this largely to “shifts in the competitive structure,” coupled with the increased entry of highly educated women into the labor market.
“As women's economic participation expanded, competitive pressure intensified significantly, particularly among youth with university degrees or higher,” said Yoon Jin-young. “The number of female employees in professional and office roles is now reaching levels similar to those of men.”
In fact, the probability of economic participation for highly educated men born between 1991 and 1995 decreased by 15.7 percentage points compared to previous generations, while it rose by 10.1 percentage points for women.
Changes in the industrial structure have also worked against young men. As middle- to low-skilled jobs in manufacturing and construction declined, the labor supply probability for men with an associate degree or less fell by 2.6 percentage points compared to 2000.
“The overall labor demand for men with an associate degree or less has declined as middle- to low-skilled jobs centered on manufacturing and construction have shrunk,” Yoon explained.
The entry path for youth is narrowing further as employment among the elderly expands and AI continues to proliferate. Between 2004 and 2025, the employment rate for older workers rose by 12.3 percentage points, with most of this increase concentrated in higher-education jobs.
Furthermore, 98.3 percent of youth jobs lost over the past four years were concentrated in industries with high exposure to AI, indicating that automation is replacing entry-level positions.
During this process, the number of “idled” individuals and those in a state of job preparation has grown, leading to a broader withdrawal from economic activity. The proportion of “idled” youth, which was 3.3 percent in 2003, reached 10.7 percent in 2025 — meaning at least one in ten young men is not even seeking a job.
Evaluating the trend, Yoon said, “The decline in the economic participation rate of young men and the expansion of participation among women and the elderly represent a diversification of labor supply following demographic changes.”
The central bank emphasized the need to establish institutional conditions that allow youth to enter the labor market more easily, preventing a “zero-sum game” in which competition between genders and groups intensifies while the total number of jobs remains stagnant.
Yoon added that structural labor market reforms — such as reducing excessive protection for regular workers and promoting the transition of non-regular workers to regular status — must be implemented in tandem.
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