On the 28th, it was learned that the government is pushing to reintroduce the Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program. The Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program is a system in which a young person newly employed by a small or midsize company accumulates money while staying on the job for a set period, and corporations and the government provide subsidies so the person can build a lump sum. It was fully implemented in 2017 but new enrollments were halted in 2024. The aim is to use it as an incentive for employment at small and midsize companies to address youth unemployment.
According to ChosunBiz reporting, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) have recently been consulting with the Ministry of Planning and Budget to restart the Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program next year. Behind the move is a worsening youth employment situation. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS), last month the unemployment rate among young people ages 15–29 was 7.6%, a record high for the same month since 2021. The youth employment rate was 43.6%, marking a decline for the 23rd straight month.
The Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program is a "three-party joint savings" structure in which young people, corporations, and the government pool money until maturity. For example, if 4 million won is saved over two years, corporations and the government each add 4 million won so that 12 million won is received at maturity. It is cited as a program to resolve job mismatches by providing an incentive for job seekers to work at small and midsize companies and giving corporations the benefit of long-term retention of young workers. It proved popular, with 132,000 new enrollees in 2020.
However, after COVID-19, as the government moved to cut expenditure, the related budget fell from 1.4163 trillion won in 2021 to 640.3 billion won in 2023. The maturity amount was reduced from 16 million won (based on the two-year option) to 12 million won, and eligibility was narrowed from all industries to manufacturing and construction with fewer than 50 employees. As a result, the number of new enrollees plummeted to 4,065 in 2023, putting the program on a path to abolition.
Initially, in line with President Lee Jae-myung's campaign pledge, the government planned to replace the Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program with a new form called the Youth Future Installment Savings. The Youth Future Installment Savings is a savings-type product that can pay up to 22 million won if up to 500,000 won is deposited monthly for three years, and any young person ages 19–34 with income can enroll regardless of employment type.
The government views the Youth Tomorrow Savings Mutual Aid program as targeting only newly hired employees at small and midsize companies and, therefore, different in nature from the Youth Future Installment Savings, and has shifted course to pursue both policies in parallel. Some, however, warn that youth support budgets may be invested in a duplicative and excessive manner.
A government official said, "We will design it differently from the past, taking into account previous criticisms such as budget duplication and unspent funds."