Chuseok offers no break for young job seekers

Employment among Koreans in their 20s is falling at its fastest pace since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, and for many young job seekers, the Chuseok harvest holidays brought more pressure than rest.

Many young people in their 20s and 30s now say a holiday off feels like a burden and welcome the return to their usual routine.

"I felt strong pressure that I would inevitably fall behind if I rested on days off like everyone else," said a 22-year-old in Songpa District, southern Seoul, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Lee Su-jin. "Now that the holidays are over, it is much easier to keep a regular routine and focus on my studies."

For Lee, this year's Chuseok was even more intense than an ordinary week. The holidays threw off Lee's daily routine and added to the pressure of studying and job hunting.

The number of employed Koreans in their 20s averaged 3.28 million a month from January through August, down 193,000 from 3.47 million in the same period last year, data from the Korean Statistical Information Service shows.

The drop is the largest for the period since 1998, when the number fell by 550,000 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The decline is also steeper than in 2009, during the global financial crisis, when it fell by 142,000, and in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it fell by 111,000.

Young job seekers could not fully rest over the holidays either.

"The study cafe was closed on Chuseok day itself, so I had no choice but to study at home, but I felt self-conscious and it was a burden," said a job seeker surnamed Kim, aged 29, who has been preparing for jobs for three years since graduating from university. "I usually take online lectures until late, but with the whole family gathered for the holiday, it was hard to study as planned."

Study cafes are paid study spaces popular among students and job seekers. On an online community for test-takers, one user posted, "I am taking the SK Competency Test [SKCT] right after Chuseok, and I am looking for people to form a study group as soon as the holidays end." The SKCT is an aptitude test that is part of SK Group's hiring process.

A survey also suggests the holidays add stress for job seekers rather than relieving it. When part-time job platform Alba Cheonguk surveyed 857 part-time workers in September, 46.1 percent said Chuseok stresses them out. The most common cause, cited by 35.7 percent, was excessive questions and nagging from family about jobs and careers.

Job hunting picks up again once the holidays end. Job platform JobKorea analyzed hiring data from before and after holidays over the past two years and said on Sept. 21 that resume registrations on the first Monday after a holiday were 49 percent higher on average than on the weekdays before it.

Job applications also peaked on the first Monday after each of the last four Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, the highest of the four weeks around each holiday.

Experts say holidays can become a time when young people feel pressure over family questions and their careers rather than a chance to recharge.

"Holidays are a time when a lot of social comparison with peers happens, and it becomes hard for individual job seekers to carry out the plans they have set, which can break the flow of their daily lives," said Lim Myung-ho, a psychology professor at Dankook University. "Separating from acquaintances and family and returning to normal life can instead help relieve holiday stress."

BY NOH YU-RIM [[email protected]]