Youth unemployment raises household debt in young generation
- 9 years ago
It's not easy for young people in Korea to find a decent job.
But what could be more worrying is that even if they do find a job, their income is rising at a rate that's in the zero-percent range.
Arirang's Shin Se-min takes a closer look.
Korea's younger generation posted the worst income growth last year.
The average monthly income of households headed by people in their 20s and 30s was around 4-thousand U.S. dollars.
That's an increase of just zero-point-7 percent compared to a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea... even lower than growth figures after the global financial crisis.
A major reason behind the slowdown is the country's youth unemployment rate that hit a record high of 9 percent last year.
As a result... even young people with jobs often have to start their careers on short-term contracts with little stability.
"Younger people have to find jobs quickly and earn money... in order to raise Korea's labor productivity. But that's not what's happening now and this will of course have a negative impact on the overall Korean economy."
And as the cost of basic living expenses rise,... like monthly rent,... the amount of debt the younger generation is responsible for keeps piling up.
Last year, the average debt of households headed by people under the age of 40 was over 14-thousand dollars,... up more than 11 percent from 2013.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News.
But what could be more worrying is that even if they do find a job, their income is rising at a rate that's in the zero-percent range.
Arirang's Shin Se-min takes a closer look.
Korea's younger generation posted the worst income growth last year.
The average monthly income of households headed by people in their 20s and 30s was around 4-thousand U.S. dollars.
That's an increase of just zero-point-7 percent compared to a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea... even lower than growth figures after the global financial crisis.
A major reason behind the slowdown is the country's youth unemployment rate that hit a record high of 9 percent last year.
As a result... even young people with jobs often have to start their careers on short-term contracts with little stability.
"Younger people have to find jobs quickly and earn money... in order to raise Korea's labor productivity. But that's not what's happening now and this will of course have a negative impact on the overall Korean economy."
And as the cost of basic living expenses rise,... like monthly rent,... the amount of debt the younger generation is responsible for keeps piling up.
Last year, the average debt of households headed by people under the age of 40 was over 14-thousand dollars,... up more than 11 percent from 2013.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News.