Number of unemployed PhDs soared to record levels in 2024

The number of unemployed PhD graduates in South Korea has soared to record levels in the past year, with the difficulty of landing a job becoming particularly severe in 2024 for PhD holders under the age of 30 and this year’s job market continuing to be subdued, according to analysts.

Last year, three out of 10 doctoral degree holders were unemployed, and nearly half of young doctoral holders under 30 were jobless, with women PhDs particularly hard hit, according to data released by the Korean National Statistical Office earlier this month.

The figures come in the wake of the government’s reduction in R&D spending by 14.7% in 2024 compared to 2023. It was the first reduction in government R&D spending in over three decades, although R&D spending at 5% of GDP is still high by international standards.

On 18 July 2024, Hwang Jung-ah, a Democratic Party of Korea member of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, in an analysis of the National Assembly Research Service and Statistics Korea’s employment trends microdata, found the number of involuntarily unemployed workers in the science and technology services sector – those who lost their jobs due to business closures, redundancies, and other managerial reasons – had increased by 21.7% compared to before the R&D budget cuts that year.

A survey of all new doctoral degree holders who graduated from universities nationwide between August 2023 and February 2024 published on 2 March by the Korean National Statistical Office's national statistics portal found that as of March, 70.4% of the 14,442 respondents were either employed or had secured employment.

Those actively seeking but unable to find work, classified as unemployed, accounted for 26.6%, while those without jobs or not actively seeking employment, termed ‘non-employed’, made up a total of 29.6%.

This is the highest non-employment rate since such surveys began in 2014. The non-employed rate was 24.5% in 2014 and remained around the mid-20s until 2018 but jumped to 29.3% in 2019 and reached a record high last year.

Students say the job market has tightened

Lee, who is set to earn a PhD in engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, told University World News: “It is only natural that when R&D budgets are reduced, unemployment among degree holders in related fields increases.”

She explained: “University research labs have been notified across the board that, regardless of their past achievements, budget cuts mean funding for certain research projects must be reduced.”

She added: “When funding for a particular research area is cut, universities have fewer positions available in their labs, and PhD graduates specialising in that area find it even harder to secure jobs.

“Those who graduated before me have also noted that fewer postdoctoral positions are available compared to previous years.”

Another postdoc, who, like others in the same position, declined to give their full name, completed a doctoral programme in natural sciences at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2024 and has been looking for a job for about eight months.

“There are not many job postings, and most require a masters or bachelor degree with over three years of industry experience. There are hardly any job postings targeting new doctoral holders, leaving me unsure what else to do besides studying,” he noted.

A student who gave her name only as Song, expects to graduate in August with a doctoral degree in engineering from Seoul National University, the country’s most prestigious institution.

She said: “Just two years ago, companies would proactively recruit us, but since the second half of last year, it has stopped. I plan to apply for jobs starting in June and also look into postdoctoral positions.”

Yoon, a doctoral student in biochemistry at another top Seoul university, said: “Research institutions and companies are passive about hiring, making it difficult to find a job or switch roles. Researchers are anxious about whether their contracts will be renewed.”

Under-30s hard hit

By age, difficulties finding employment faced by young doctoral holders were particularly severe.

Among 537 respondents under the age of 30 who received doctoral degrees in 2024, almost 48% were non-employed, the highest rate since the surveys began. The proportion of non-employed female doctoral holders was higher than that of males, the statistical office reported.

Among 6,288 male PhD holders, 27.4% were non-employed, while a third of 4,154 female doctoral holders were without jobs.

Salary levels are also not favourable. Nearly half of employed doctoral graduates earned between KRW20 million (US$13,600) and KRW60 million annually.

Among the 7,346 employed respondents, 27.6% earned less than KRW40 million, and one in five earned between KRW40 million and KRW60 million. At 14.4% of doctoral holders, only a minority earned over KRW100 million.

This year’s job market is also generally subdued.

A survey released on 27 February by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry found that among the country’s top 500 companies by sales, 61% of respondents said they had no plans or were undecided about hiring new employees in the first half of this year, up 6.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Companies noted that the impact of the R&D budget cuts by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration was particularly felt when it came to hiring science and engineering graduates.

But humanities doctoral graduates are also facing difficulties. Against the backdrop of government cuts in the R&D budget last year, some stipends were reduced, with universities unable to fully cover the shortfalls.

Post-COVID degree inflation

The phenomenon of ‘degree inflation’ is also cited as a factor. With a tightened job market, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, more students opted for masters and doctoral programmes.

Kang, a 27-year-old biotechnology doctoral student, said: “With more people competing for limited jobs, PhD holders are applying for masters-level positions, and masters holders are applying for bachelor-level jobs.”

According to the OECD's 2024 International Adult Competencies Survey, in Korea, 31.3% of jobs require a lower level of education than the qualifications completed by the worker, compared to the OECD average of 23.4%.

As a result, many are looking abroad. A KAIST graduate said: “There is a perception among PhD degree holders that Korea does not provide much support for research, so many think they should look to countries like the United States, where research budgets are relatively generous.”

Dire situation in the humanities

The situation is even more dire for humanities, with young graduates saying humanities researchers are essentially in a “competition for survival”.

Kim, who received a PhD in humanities from a university in Seoul, stated: “I am applying for regular research or professor positions, but universities are reducing humanities lectures, making it even harder to find a job.”

This is related to a tendency by universities to reduce humanities programmes when facing a budget shortage, experts said.

According to the statistical office survey, the non-employment rate for arts and humanities doctoral holders was 40%, the highest among all fields.

Natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics (37.7%), and social sciences, journalism, and information studies (33.1%) also had high non-employment rates. In contrast, non-employment among those with PhDs in health and welfare (20.9%), education (21.7%), and business, administration, and law (23.9%) was relatively lower.

Data from the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training in 2022 showed that among new doctoral degree holders in humanities, 56.9% were employed by universities, while only 6.5% worked in private companies.

For engineering, 30.2% were employed by universities, and 32.6% by private companies. Other fields had a more balanced distribution, but humanities graduates were heavily dependent on universities.

The quality of jobs is also poor. As much as 37.3% of humanities doctoral holders earned less than KRW20 million annually, compared to just 5.1% of engineering doctoral holders.

Only 18.4% of humanities doctoral holders earned over KRW50 million, less than half the proportion of engineering doctoral holders (58.6%).

This situation has not improved significantly. A student in the English literature masters programme at Yonsei University said: “You need to be supported at home to pursue humanities studies in Korea.”

Unlike the well-funded STEM fields, the humanities suffer from a lack of external support. A postdoctoral researcher noted: “After receiving a PhD is [the time] when we should be most actively conducting research, but in Korea, we are left on our own at this stage.”

Many end up teaching at academies (private cram schools) while continuing research or eventually give up academia due to financial constraints.