More than 3 out of 10 young people aged 18 to 34 across the country started their first job as a non-regular worker, and the average monthly income at the first job was found to be around 2.13 million won.
According to the ‘Research on the first start of youth society and policy measures I: Jobs’ report by the Korea Youth Policy Institute, the results of a job situation survey of 2,041 youth aged 18-34 across the country from July to October 2021 showed that young people The average tenure at the first job after graduation was 33.3 months.
‘First job after graduation’ was defined as those who worked more than one hour for the first time after graduating from final school for income purposes or worked for more than 18 hours unpaid at a family business, started before graduation but continued to work after graduation. .
94.5% of the respondents in their first job after graduation were wage workers and 5.5% were non-wage workers. When the first job was a wage worker, 66.6% of regular workers and 33.4% of non-regular workers were employed.
Looking at the size of the workforce, 63.9% of young people started their first job in small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 30 employees. The rate of starting their first job in a workplace with 1 to 4 employees was also high at 26.3%. Only 7.7% of those in their first job had 500 or more employees.
The average weekly working hours for the first job after graduation was 41 hours, and the average monthly income was 2.13 million won.
The number of working hours per week was 2 hours longer for men (42 hours) than for women (40 hours). The monthly income of men (2.31 million won) was about 370,000 won higher than that of women (19.94 million won).
By educational background, young people with a high school diploma or less received a salary of 2.03 million won for an average of 44 hours of work, while those with a college degree or higher received 2.36 million won for 42 hours of work.
As for their satisfaction with their first job after graduation, 42.8% said they liked it, and 15.9% said they didn’t like it.
