Even with a Ph.D., 30% are unemployed—the highest ever... Half of 'young doctors' are jobless.

Last year, 3 out of 10 doctoral degree recipients were found to be unemployed. Nearly half of the young doctors under 30 had no job.

This is interpreted as the highest rate since the start of statistical reporting, with the harsh winds of the job market affecting even PhDs who have achieved peak success in their respective fields due to insufficient supply of quality jobs.

Among the 10,000 people who obtained a doctorate last year, 29.6% are unemployed or part of the non-economically active population.

According to the National Statistical Portal of the Korea Statistical Office on the 2nd, the results of the '2024 Domestic New Doctorate Degree Holders Survey' showed that out of 10,442 respondents, 70.4% are currently employed or have secured employment.

 

Unemployed individuals who could not find work accounted for 26.6%, while the non-economically active population who were neither employed nor unemployed made up 3.0%.

The proportion of 'unemployed' individuals who have not secured a job or are not actively seeking employment was 29.6% in total, the highest since the start of related surveys in 2014.

The unemployment rate started at 24.5% in 2014 and remained in the mid-20s, reaching 25.9% in 2018, but it jumped to 29.3% in 2019 and hit a record high last year.

This is the survey result conducted by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, targeting all doctoral degree recipients who graduated from universities nationwide in August of the previous year and February of the current year.

This phenomenon can be interpreted as reflecting the reality that there is a lack of high-quality, high-wage jobs for highly educated individuals.

Projections from the Bank of Korea and others suggest that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology may, contrary to common belief, replace more jobs held by high-income and highly educated individuals, potentially accelerating the worsening trend.

 

◇ Unprecedented difficulties for young doctors... Female doctors face even greater employment challenges

Looking at it by age group, last year the difficulty for young people to find new doctor jobs was particularly severe, reaching an all-time high.

Among the 537 respondents under 30 who obtained a doctoral degree last year, 47.7% were unemployed, the highest since the related survey began.

Despite actively seeking employment, 45.1% of unemployed individuals were unable to find a job, and 2.6% were part of the non-economic activity population who did not even properly engage in job search activities.

As of February last year, the total number of employed young people decreased by 61,000 compared to the previous year. It has been in a decline for 16 consecutive months since November 2022.

 

Even young doctors have not been able to escape the harsh blow of this youth employment winter.

The proportion of unemployed female doctors was higher than that of males when looking at gender.

Last year, the unemployment rate was 27.4% among male PhDs (6,288 people) and 33.1% among female PhDs (4,154 people).

Looking at the unemployment rate by major category, Arts and Humanities had the highest at 40.1%. Majors in Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Statistics (37.7%), as well as Social Sciences, Journalism, and Informatics (33.1%), also had high unemployment rates.

On the other hand, majors in health and welfare (20.9%), education (21.7%), and management, administration, and law (23.9%) had relatively more employed individuals, resulting in a lower unemployment rate.

 

◇ Hard to earn a doctorate and get a job... about half have an annual salary of 20 million to 60 million won

Last year, nearly half of the newly employed doctors who found jobs earned an annual salary ranging from 20 million to 60 million won.

Among the 7,346 respondents who are employed, 27.6% reported earning between 20 million and less than 40 million won. 19.8% reported earning between 40 million and less than 60 million won. Doctors with a high annual salary of over 100 million won accounted for 14.4%.

It is analyzed that female doctors often have lower salaries.

The proportion of those earning over 100 million won was 18.7% among men, but only 7.2% among women.

 

Conversely, the proportion of annual salaries below 20 million won was 6.6% for men and 17.3% for women.

Based on major criteria, the proportion of individuals earning over 100 million won was highest in management, administration, and law (23.5%). The health and welfare sector (21.9%) and information and communication technology (20.3%) also had high proportions of high-income earners exceeding 100 million won.

Meanwhile, majors who responded that they earn less than 20 million won annually overwhelmingly belonged to the arts and humanities (25.5%). The proportions earning less than 20 million won were also significant in education (17.3%), service (15.0%), and social sciences, journalism, and information science (12.7%).

Last year, the total expenditure on doctoral program tuition was less than 20 million won for 51.3% of students. Following that, 25.5% spent between 20 million and less than 30 million won, 11.8% spent between 30 million and less than 40 million won, and 6.2% spent over 50 million won.

In the category of 'considerations when choosing a workplace,' which was answered by 4,983 respondents, the most common factor was relevance to their major, selected by 30.2% of doctors. Salary (26.1%) and job security (16.9%) were also important factors in their choices.

89.0% responded that the relevance to actual work and their specialty is 'high,' while the remaining 11.0% answered 'low.' This suggests that about one in ten, despite earning a doctorate, found themselves unable to utilize their specialty and took up employment elsewhere.

[Table] Domestic New Doctor Employment Status

[Table] Employment status of young doctors under 30 years old

※ Data: National Statistical Portal of the Korea National Statistical Office

 

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It seems there are no job opportunities suitable for doctors to get employed...

 

It's hard these days, only hearing that the economy is not good.

 

It's a tough world overall, even when it comes to employment.