Entry-level openings shrink as AI reshapes recruitment, universities cut hiring
South Korea’s worsening youth employment is increasingly affecting even the country’s highest-educated workers, with one in three newly awarded doctorate holders either unemployed or economically inactive, government data showed Monday.
The trend reflects a shrinking entry-level job market that experts say has been exacerbated by the adoption of artificial intelligence, while a declining college-age population has reduced university hiring, particularly hurting graduates in humanities and other nonindustrial fields.
According to Statistics Korea, 10,498 people earned doctorate degrees in 2025. Of those, 27.7 percent had not found employment more than six months after graduation, while another 5.6 percent were economically inactive, meaning they were not even seeking work.
The combined 33.3 percent marked the highest level since the survey began in 2014. The share of economically inactive doctorate holders alone nearly doubled from 3 percent a year earlier.
The situation is even more challenging for younger graduates.
Among doctorate holders under the age of 30, a record 51.1 percent were unemployed or economically inactive. The figure stood at 44.2 percent for those aged 30 to 34, suggesting younger graduates without prior work experience face greater difficulty entering the labor market.
Some experts attribute the trend partly to the spread of AI, which is automating tasks traditionally assigned to entry-level workers and prompting employers to favor experienced candidates over first-time job seekers.
As a result, doctorate holders who pursued their higher degrees without entering the workforce are finding it difficult to secure their first full-time positions.
At the same time, universities, which have traditionally provided career opportunities for doctorate holders in basic sciences, the humanities and the arts, are reducing faculty recruitment as they prepare for a sharp decline in student enrollment.
According to the Ministry of Education, the population aged 6 to 21 is projected to fall from 7.5 million in 2022 to 4.24 million by 2052, forcing many universities to downsize.
The government has also increasingly tied financial support for universities to their contributions to strategic industries, prompting many institutions to consolidate or close departments in fundamental academic disciplines while expanding industry-oriented programs.
The employment gap was also reflected in income levels across fields of study.
Among employed doctorate holders, 29.8 percent of those majoring in business, administration and law earned annual salaries of at least 100 million won ($64,700), followed by health and welfare at 26.5 percent and information and communications technology at 24.1 percent.
By contrast, only 3.7 percent of doctorate holders in the arts and humanities earned at least 100 million won a year. They were also the most likely to earn less than 20 million won annually at 26.8 percent, followed by graduates in education at 19 percent and the social sciences, journalism and information studies at 14.9 percent.
forestjs@heraldcorp.com
