00:02You're listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
00:06Korea just redefined youth for employment policy, raising the cutoff from 29 to 34.
00:13Active resumes on Korea's top job platform just crossed 800,000, up 19% in a year.
00:20A quarter of young workers at small companies don't even know about a tax break they qualify for.
00:27And in China, young people are going viral with videos on how to live homeless instead of success stories.
00:33It's Wednesday, September 9th.
00:35Let's look at what this means for job seekers and graduates in Korea.
00:39The government widened its youth policy eligibility just as Korea's job market keeps generating record volumes of active job seekers
00:48year after year.
00:49At the same time, valuable benefits like income tax breaks often go unused simply because eligible workers never learn about
00:58them.
00:58And the contrast with China's much sharper youth unemployment crisis is a reminder of how differently these pressures can play
01:05out even in neighboring economies.
01:08Here's what the numbers show.
01:09The government expanded its legal definition of youth for employment policy from ages 15 to 29 up to ages 15
01:17to 34, effective September 18th, aligning the law with programs that already serve the wider age range, including a work
01:25experience program paying $1.7 million a month.
01:29Active resumes on the catch job platform crossed $800,000 up 19% year on year with about 43%
01:37updated within the last 18 months and sole metro area university graduates making up 41% of the total.
01:4452.3% of young workers at small and mid-sized companies either didn't apply for an income tax exemption
01:52they qualified for or didn't know it existed, even though the program can cut up to $20,000,000 in
01:58tax over 10 years.
01:59Youth unemployment in urban China hit 17.9% in July, an 11-month high, fueling a wave of viral
02:07videos on Chinese social media joking about how to survive homelessness instead of celebrating success stories.
02:14LH will supply 20,528 buy-to-rent housing units in central Seoul over three years, with 14,558 reserved
02:24for young people whose lease application competition ratio already runs at 130 to 1.
02:30So what does this mean for you as you plan your next step?
02:34Earlier, we said Korea just raised its legal definition of youth for employment policy from 29 to 34.
02:41Here's what that actually means for you.
02:44If you're in your early 30s and still job hunting or considering a career pivot, you now formally qualify for
02:51government job training, placement support, and housing programs that used to be off-limits by age.
02:57Combine that with a job market where active resumes keep climbing every year and it's worth checking every program you
03:04might now be eligible for,
03:06since many go unclaimed simply because people don't know they qualify.
03:10What to watch?
03:11Whether the labor ministry's expanded youth age range brings visible growth in program enrollment among 30 to 34-year-olds.
03:19Catch's next resume, Count Update, to see if growth in active job seekers continues at a similar pace.
03:25And whether China's youth unemployment and social sentiment keep deteriorating as a comparison point for Korea's own youth labor market.
03:34That's today's AI Prism, students and grads.
03:38This episode was produced with AI Assistants based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting and reviewed by a human editor.
03:45AI Prism is a Juan Ifra award-winning series.
03:48We'll be back tomorrow.
03:49You've been listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
03:55We'll be back tomorrow.
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