Korean College Grads Willing to Flip Burgers
According to this piece from Yonhap News, Korean college graduates are pining for part-time work. Work applications from so-called college graduate “white hand” (대졸백수) candidates (”white hand” is a mildly derogatory term for students who have completed a four-year university degree but have been unable to secure permanent employment) comprised 29 percent of new 2009 applications at Part-Time Heaven (알바천국). A year ago, just 9.93 percent of part-time applicants at PTH had university educations.
May in particular saw an extreme increase in the number of college grads willing to work part time with 72 percent more 4-year degree job seeker applications, and 41% more graduate-level applications.
While I concede that this trend has certainly been influenced by the global recession as companies are hiring fewer and fewer workers, my take is that this is more evidence of the difficulty strict labor standards places on the work force in general. Archaic Korean labor standards which make downsizing and firing employees extremely arduous force companies to be more picky over full-time employee hires – and they often settle for loyalty over talent.
The increase in part time and seasonal work applications also speaks to the fact that companies are hiring part time workers and temporary people who, except for the strict labor standards, would be regular full time employees because labor regulations dealing with temporary workers are more lax.
The Korean government and the Korean labor unions need to wake up and see what pain and difficulty they are really causing. The simple fact of the matter is that Korea’s arcane labor regulations hurt companies and employees. Companies are unable to hire the talent needed. Capable workers are unable to get decent employment, and the costs of labor are sky-high.
As I’m no Korean law or labor expert, I will leave my opinion at that and refer you to Mr. Brendon Carr, who posts at Korea Law Blog, and has this interesting piece on Korean labor standards. Also check out his free Korea Employment Law FAQ, which I found quite interesting as a foreign expatriate.
In related news, the Korea times reports that 58 percent of men and 50 percent of women graduating from Korean universities also bear an average of 7.08 million won ($5,900) in student loan or other debt. These poor kids are hitting the job market at the worst possible moment. On top of that, thanks to arcane government regulations, psychotic unions, and increased competition, the cards are decidedly stacked against new workers. Something has got to give if Korea is going to remain a vibrant economy in years to come. Labor standards must change.
