Men in 20s take harder hit in job market on spread of AI

Young job seekers are seen filling out forms before a counseling session at an employment welfare center in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Oct. 17. [NEWS1]

 
Young men in their 20s are being hit hardest in the job market as the influx of AI has caused alarm bells to ring across a country whose staple businesses were founded upon a solid manufacturing and retail background.
 
Analysts warn that if current trends persist, the employment rate gap between men and women in their 20s could reach a record high.
 
The average employment rate for men in the age group from January to October this year was 57.8 percent, while for women it was 62.9 percent — a gap of 5.1 percentage points, according to data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Tuesday.
 
Men in this age group have lagged behind women in employment since 2011. The gap widened to the 4 percent range in 2021, following the Covid-19 pandemic, and peaked at five percentage points in 2023. Although it narrowed slightly to 4.8 percentage points last year, it is once again on the rise this year.
 
One major reason for the employment decline among men in their 20s is the downturn in manufacturing and construction — sectors traditionally filled by this demographic.
 
The number of positions for workers in their 20s or younger dropped by 135,000 in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to new administrative statistics released by the Data Ministry on wage-based jobs. The decline was concentrated in manufacturing, with a loss of 22,000 jobs, construction with 21,000 and information and communications with another 21,000.
 
Recent data also show that the expansion of AI has disproportionately affected the employment of young men compared to women.
 

A job seeker is seen receiving counseling at an employment welfare center in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Oct. 17. [NEWS1]

 
From the second half of 2022 — when ChatGPT was launched — to the first half of this year, the number of jobs held by people aged 15 to 29 fell by 211,000, according to the employment research team at the Bank of Korea (BOK).
 
Of those, 208,000 jobs — accounting for 98.6 percent of the total — were in industries with high exposure to AI, such as computer programming, system integration and management and professional services.
 
Broken down by gender, employment among men aged 29 or younger declined by 109,000, while for women it dropped by 99,000. In AI-exposed industries, jobs for men in that age group fell by 4.5 percent more than the overall average, while jobs for women declined by 2.6 percent more.
 
“This suggests that men in their 20s have taken a heavier hit from the spread of AI,” said Oh Sam-il, head of the employment research team at the BOK. “Industries with the highest exposure to AI, such as computer programming and professional services, have a higher share of male workers, and that’s the main reason for the disparity.”
 
There is also a social factor at play: Many young men reportedly feel greater pressure to land a “first job” that meets certain expectations, which may contribute to lower employment rates.
 

People attending a lecture on unemployment benifit eligibility are seen at an employment welfare center in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Nov. 12. [NEWS1]

 
With fewer high-quality jobs available amid a sluggish economy, women are more likely to enter the labor market and gain a range of experiences, while men tend to extend their job search period.
 
Men aged 15 to 29 took an average of 13 months to land their first job, while women took 11 months, according to the Data Ministry’s supplementary youth labor force survey in May. Only 45.7 percent of men in that group participated in internships or job experience programs before being hired, compared to 54.3 percent of women.
 
“Even though men are still more likely to be the primary earners in households, only a small percentage — less than 10 percent — of nonregular workers are converted to regular employees,” said Park Sung-beom, an emeritus professor of economics at Hansung University. “That reality appears to be prompting many men in their 20s to delay employment until they can find a stable position.”
 
“Jobs traditionally preferred by men — such as those in manufacturing and construction — are shrinking further due to AI and automation,” Park added. “Meanwhile, women are more actively pursuing opportunities in face-to-face service industries, which could cause the gender employment gap to widen even more in the years ahead.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM KYUNG-HEE [[email protected]]