Worry Over Job Market Lead List of Concerns for Koreans

To follow up on yesterday's report on employment in Korea, Korea Times notes that concerns over the job market leads the list in a recent survey.

Koreans worry most about the tight job market, followed by the widening gap between the rich and poor, a study showed yesterday.

Koo Do-wan, a sociology professor of the Catholic University of Korea, conducted the survey on 1,255 Koreans aged 19 or above, between April 17 and May 15, to analyze changes in the values of Koreans.

The poll said 88.5 percent of the respondents answered the tight job market is their biggest concern as more and more jobseekers are having difficulty with landing a job due to the prolonged economic slowdown.

In the survey, poverty placed second at 88.3 percent, followed by social polarization at 84.5 percent, and real estate policy at 82.7 percent.

Also, concerning questions about social anxiety, the respondents worry most about their lives after retirement at 66 percent, followed by unemployment, 65.7 percent; disease, 62.7 percent; and crime, 61.9 percent.

The figure indicates fear of crime has not changed much from 1996.

But anxiety about the quality of post-retirement life has changed significantly.

When surveyed 10 years ago, 35 percent of Koreans felt uneasy about retirement, but this year the figure increased to 66 percent.

Also this year 65.7 percent said they were troubled over unemployment resulting from lay-offs or the failure of self-owned businesses. The comparable figure stood at 24.6 percent 10 years ago.