Too young to give up, but too broke to dream: Korea's youth face uncertain future 

Youth is supposed to be a time of possibility, but for many young Koreans, it has become a time of uncertainty: Jobs are growing scarce, homes are out of reach and the future looks increasingly unaffordable.

A 45-year-old manager at a major conglomerate surnamed Yoon recently had lunch with a junior employee who had been with the company for just two years. After getting to know the younger colleague's age, Yoon replied that they envied the employee's youth. But the response was far from the expected “thank you.”

“When I hear senior colleagues complain that they can't rest on weekends because [they spend time with] their children, the first thing I feel is envy,” the younger employee replied. “I don't think I'll ever reach that stage of life — getting married, buying a home and having children.”

Hearing someone say they wanted to grow old, not out of excitement for the future but out of despair over what seemed beyond their reach, broke Yoon's heart.

“I could feel all the pain and frustration young people today are carrying,” Yoon added.

Such anxieties reflect a widening wealth gap that is making financial stability and upward mobility increasingly elusive for many young Koreans.

“Although the semiconductor boom has fueled remarkable growth in the stock market, it has also cast a deep shadow of wealth polarization,” President Lee Jae Myung said during a Cabinet meeting and emergency economic review on June 23. “Young people, who lack opportunities to build wealth through stable employment and income, are among those most left behind.”

The frustration is not confined to Korea. Protests led by high school students and young adults have also been spreading across France over poor educational conditions, high living costs and housing insecurity.

Back in Korea, employment is a particularly pressing concern.

The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 has declined for 47 consecutive months, from November 2022 through September this year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

The youth employment rate stood at 44 percent in September, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous month and marking its 29th consecutive monthly decline.

The number of young people aged 15 to 29 who were economically inactive and reported that they were taking a break, rather than seeking work, has also steadily increased. There were 390,000 such youth in 2022, 401,000 in 2023, 421,000 in 2024 and 428,000 in 2025.

Adding to concerns is the growing difficulty of finding jobs even among the highly educated as major corporations scale back open recruitment and increasingly favor experienced hires.

The shrinking availability of quality, permanent jobs is another worrying trend.

“The economy is not facing an external shock like the [1997] Asian financial crisis, and judging by indicators such as economic growth, conditions are almost booming, yet the job market tells a completely different story,” Hur Joon-young, a professor of economics at Sogang University, said. “The current youth employment crisis, which now extends even to highly educated workers, is deeply concerning especially considering the possibility of structural work force reductions as AI becomes more widespread.”

Performance bonuses announced earlier this year at semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have further fueled feelings of deprivation.

Although the bonuses represent a way for employees to share in their companies' success, the amounts seem almost unimaginable to ordinary workers.

“I work hard, but my annual salary is only around 60 million won [$45,000], while some people are getting 600 million or even 800 million won [as a bonus],” a 33-year-old employee surnamed Sohn, working at a midsize company in Seoul, said. “How am I supposed to go about my normal life knowing that? I've come to terms with it somewhat now, but it was really difficult at the time.”

The proportion of young households among those in the bottom 20 percent for both net wealth and income nearly doubled, from 7.9 percent in 2020 to 15.2 percent in 2025, according to a Bank of Korea (BOK) report.

“Entrenched economic disparities can lower society's expectations for upward mobility and weaken trust in the relationship between effort and reward, potentially fueling intergenerational conflict,” Lee Jae-ho, deputy director of the BOK's research coordination team, said.

While previous generations could hope to climb the socioeconomic ladder through hard work, today's young people face an increasingly unequal starting line.

Soaring housing prices are a major factor.

Seoul's price-to-income ratio stood at 10 in the second quarter, according to KB Real Estate. This means a household would have to save its entire income for 10 years without spending a single won to afford a median-priced apartment in the city.

Even that calculation may be overly optimistic.

The ratio assumes a median apartment price of 837.5 million won. But the average price of an apartment in Seoul has been climbing, reaching 1.7 billion won as of September, up 9.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.

With wages unable to keep pace with rising property prices, the wealth gap between young people and homeowners in their 40s and 50s is likely to widen further.

The rental market is another source of financial pressure as jeonse, Korea's lump-sum deposit rental system, increasingly gives way to monthly rentals.

Monthly rentals accounted for 51 percent of apartment rental transactions in Seoul between January and September, surpassing half of all transactions for the first time since relevant statistics began being compiled in 2011.

The shift came as jeonse transactions plunged 27.5 percent during the same period.

Average monthly apartment rent in Seoul reached 1.66 million won as of September, meaning that even renting an apartment is beyond the means of many young people. Even smaller multifamily homes in the capital required an average monthly rent of 680,000 won.

The financial strain is also taking a toll on mental health. Suicide was the leading cause of death among people in their teens, 20s, 30s and 40s last year, according to the Statistics Ministry.

Suicide accounted for 53.5 percent of deaths among people in their 20s last year. The suicide rate for this age group stood at 20.8 per 100,000 people, more than twice the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations.

People in their 30s also accounted for the largest number of patients treated for depression last year, followed by those in their 20s, according to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service.

“Considering factors such as the social safety net, Korea is not in a situation where unrest like that in France is immediately expected, but accumulated anger will eventually erupt,” a sociology professor who requested anonymity said. “But we need to seek more proactive solutions, recognizing that when young people lose hope, the country loses a driving force for its future.”

Social media also contributes to young people's growing frustration over the gap between their aspirations and financial realities.

“Young people's aspirations have become excessively heightened under the influence of social media and other factors, but many feel frustrated because their economic circumstances cannot keep up,” psychiatrist Park Jong-seok said. “It is important to foster a social environment that respects diverse ways of life while developing a national vision for the future that can ease young people's anxieties about employment and building wealth.”

BY JANG WON-SEOK [[email protected]]