Career Workers Welcomed in Job Market

The employment trend of companies has changed to a great degree. The ratio of new college graduate employment to career worker employment was completely reversed to 7:3, compared to 3:7 5 years ago.

The Ministry of Labor said yesterday that as of September in 1996 the major companies such as conglomerates, state-owned companies and financial companies have given priority to newly-graduated appliers over career worker appliers, selecting the employers in the ratio of 7 (65.2 percent) to 3 (34.8 percent).

But as of April this year after 5 years passed, the newly-graduated applicants and the career applicants were employed in the ratio of 3 to 7, recording 25.8 percent and 74.2 percent respectively. It has been known that recently the companies prefer the career workers, but it is for the first time that the Ministry of Labor announced the ratio based on the examination on major companies.

The graph showed that the priority for career workers have been firmly established among the companies since September last year. The ministry estimated that the reversion of employment fashion of the companies took place around the end of 1999 when the money crisis broke out.

When venture companies are included in the statistics, as of April this year, the ratio of career worker employment increased to 8 out of 10 as the newly-graduated applicants and the career applicants were employed in the percentage of 18.0 percent and 82.1 percent respectively. And for companies with over 30 employers, the ratio of career worker employment was overwhelmingly larger than the ratio of new college graduate employment in 9 (85.5 percent) to 1 (14.5 percent).

The phenomenon, that the career workers are more welcomed in the job market, implies that it is harder for the newly graduated candidates to find job than before. The ministry said that as the demand for human-resource from companies has radically changed, it has become difficult to set a short-term solution for the employment crisis of newly-graduated candidates.

The employment consultants advised the new college graduates to find jobs while working at odd jobs, during which they could find a better job after increasing their marketability.

Jin Lee leej@donga.com