(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Sept. 22)

Young and Idle

Hardly has there been a scarier time for graduating college seniors than now.
An education ministry report said Sunday only four out of every 10 graduates of
four-year colleges landed full-time jobs this year leaving the other six jobless
or virtually jobless, barely finding part-time jobs or temporary internships.

It's little wonder that students either put off graduation or choose to enter
graduate schools with no particular passion or necessity for more study. A
women's college even received a warm welcome from students by introducing a "post
bachelor" course, allowing graduates without jobs to remain in school.
Another job-related report, released by the National Statistical Office on
Monday, showed the number of employed in their 20s and 30s stood at a mere 9.52
million in August - the lowest monthly figure in nearly two decades, reaffirming
the widespread concern that the younger generation is bearing the brunt of the
prolonged recession and jobless growth.
Even these figures may be failing to show the reality in full, as the
government's various stopgap employment programs, including providing students
with interships as office assistants, have worked to prevent youth jobless rate
from rising further. These temporary steps may be better than nothing for now,
but could prove to be more harmful for you job-seekers in the long run by keeping
them mired longer in an employment limbo, as admitted even by many government
officials.
One can hardly deny the fundamental gap between supply and demand of the labor
force is the main culprit, as almost 85 percent of Korean high school graduates
go on to college now, compared with about 50 percent three decades ago. And it is
also true that there is a serious "mismatch" between would-be employers and
employees, as many college graduates would rather remain out of job than work at
small and medium-sized enterprises.
But none of the se can justify President Lee Myung-bak's recent raising of two
questions concerning the issue: asking in effect why all high school graduates
should enter colleges (instead of finding some less-paying jobs), and why all
college graduates should enter large enterprises (instead of landing at smaller
firms).
This woud make for good "personal" advice from a wizened senior to an
inexperienced youth, but not from a government official, much less the President.
In this age of knowledge-based economy, the world's highest ratio of college
students should be an asset, and the government's duty is to improve the quality
of education at colleges instead of cooling fervor for higher education. The Lee
administration's education policy has left fewer and fewer options for students
but to enter colleges. Its industrial policy has also turned toward favoring
giant enterprises, making them too big to fail, while leaving smaller firms "too
small to succeed."
It seems unlikely that the college students would expect to hear those remarks
coming from the President, who graduated from a top university and made his
career at one of the nation's largest conglomerates.
Providing jobs for the young is the very basis of social stability and vitality.
lee can hardly afford to waste any more time going all out to curb the soaring
youth unemployment rate.
(END)