Female Job Hunting Going Overseas

For female job seekers with bachelor’s degrees, finding employment is not easy. The hiring gap between men and women is evident at 72.0 percent for men and 48.3 percent for women as of the end of 2004. In particular, graduates from local universities are having an extra hard time finding jobs. Some say it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. As a solution, quite a number of female college students are making a radical decision. Instead of clinging on to the hope of getting employed at home, they make plans to go overseas.

According to the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea) on April 8, companies overseas need more female workers than male workers. Last year, HRD Korea set up a task force to help people apply for jobs abroad. The purpose was to give those with more than associate degrees assistance in seeking employment in foreign locations.

Between 2004 and March 2005, 757 job applicants succeeded in employment overseas with the help from HRD Korea.

Out of that pool, 439 were women, accounting for 58 percent. If the jobs of are sorted out according to industry, flight attendants come first with 220, followed by nurses (140), IT employees (38) and office workers (33). Four were employed even as a car design engineer.

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com