The share of young people ages 15 to 29 who have been unable to find a job for more than a year (48.6%) is the highest since the 2009 global financial crisis (52.7%). In addition, the number of young people who have not found employment for more than a year reached the highest level since COVID-19. Youth employment indicators are increasingly deteriorating, affected by corporations' preference for hiring experienced workers and the spread of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the "Results of the supplementary survey on youth in the May 2026 Economically Active Population Survey" released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) on the 23rd, the number of young people who had not been employed for more than a year was 605,000, the highest since 2021 (703,000), when the number of employed people fell due to the impact of COVID-19. The number of people unemployed for more than three years was 241,000, the most in five years since 2021 (278,000).
The youth labor force participation rate was 47.2%, down 2.3 percentage points from the same month a year earlier, and the number of employed youth was 3,427,000, down 255,000 from a year earlier. The declines in participation and employment were the largest since statistics began in 2004. The youth employment rate was 43.8%, down 2.4 percentage points. The youth employment rate was the lowest in six years since 2020 (42.2%), when the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic took full hold.
A Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) official said, "It appears that the trend of a slowing job market, due to factors such as corporations' preference for hiring experienced workers and the spread of AI, has affected youth employment."
Among recent graduates who are currently unemployed, 40.0% had been unemployed for less than six months, up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier, and 19.4% had been unemployed for more than three years, up 0.5 percentage points. Those unemployed for more than a year stood at 48.6%, up 2.0 percentage points from a year earlier. The main activities of the unemployed were vocational training and preparing for employment exams (39.3%), just passing time (25.3%), and preparing for further education (12.5%).