SEOUL, April 28 (AJP)-The so-called "resting" young people under 30 numbered 402,000, and the unemployment rate of the young cohort hit 7.4 percent as of March even as the overall employment rate neared 70 percent in South Korea.
The spring has failed to arrive for the young jobseekers.
The government and business groups opened the 2026 Korea Win-Win Job Fair at aT Center in southern Seoul on Tuesday, hoping to provide some reprieve. The two-day event is hosted Ministry of Employment and Labor and business organizations including the Korea Enterprises Federation, the fair was organized as a follow-up measure to the Youth Jobs First Step Initiative announced in December last year.
About 700 companies are taking part online and offline, including major conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Group, as well as mid-sized firms, small businesses, startups and foreign companies. More than 2,200 jobs are being offered.
Candidates move booth to booth, repeating the same introduction, adjusting tone, refining answers — in real time.
The effort is constant. The outcome uncertain.
“Resting” suggests choice. What fills this hall suggests persistence. They are not outside the labor market.
They are circling its edges.
If the doorway narrows, the queue lengthens. If the queue lengthens, the pause grows.
Folders go back into bags. Phones come out — checking, refreshing, waiting.
They will apply again. They will return again.
Spring, for them, is not here yet.
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