The employment rate for graduates with a degree in software (SW) has fallen by more than 10 percentage points over the past two years. Additionally, the number of youth jobs in the SW industry has decreased by approximately 25,000 over the past three years. Concerns are growing that the reduction in opportunities for entry-level talent to gain practical experience, due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), could hinder the long-term availability of skilled workers.
According to a report released on November 8 by the Software Policy Research Institute (SPRi), the employment rate for SW majors from four-year universities in South Korea dropped from 68.1% in 2022 to 57.3% in 2024, a decline of 10.8 percentage points. The SW major includes fields such as applied software engineering, computer science, and information and communication engineering.
During the same period, the overall employment rate for graduates from general universities fell from 66.3% to 62.8%, a decrease of 3.5 percentage points. This indicates that SW major graduates have been hit harder as the job market for college graduates has generally tightened.
The youth employment landscape within the industry has also contracted. Based on an analysis of regional employment data from the National Data Agency, the number of jobs for individuals aged 15 to 29 in the domestic SW industry decreased by about 25,000 from 2022 to 2025.
The proportion of workers aged 15 to 29 in the SW industry also fell from 26.6% in 2022 to 19.2% last year, a drop of 7.4 percentage points.
Changes have also been observed in the composition of new hires. The share of entry-level positions in SW and digital content development and production dropped from 53.4% in 2023 to 48.9% in 2024, a decline of 4.5 percentage points.
Conversely, the proportion of experienced hires increased from 46.6% to 51.1%, marking a reversal from the trend between 2020 and 2023 when entry-level hiring was higher than experienced hiring.
The prolonged decline in entry-level hiring poses a challenge for companies in securing skilled workers in the long term. With fewer opportunities for new hires to gain practical experience, the pipeline for developing future talent is at risk.
Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Azure, warned, "AI has led to the automation of entry-level tasks, resulting in a focus on hiring only experienced workers. However, if we do not hire entry-level employees, the talent supply chain for related roles will collapse."
Catherine Diaz, Chief People Officer at Cognizant, also pointed out, "If we do not bring in talent that is familiar with the digital environment, the adoption of AI in companies will slow down, and knowledge transfer within organizations may be disrupted."
The researchers recommend supporting both the entry of beginners into the field and their growth into skilled professionals. Kim Hang-kyu, a senior researcher at SPRi, stated, "Companies should provide new hires with practical experience through real projects and guidance from skilled professionals. In particular, AI should not be used solely to replace entry-level tasks." He added that there is a need to establish systems that involve new hires in supervising, verifying, and solving problems related to tasks performed by AI.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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