South Korea sees rise in younger entrepreneurs

A rising number of South Koreans in their 20s have started their own businesses amid the sluggish job market caused by the coronavirus pandemic, show data from Statistics Korea and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. 

Between January and April this year, 449,000 startups were launched by individuals. Of the total, entrepreneurs aged 30 and under started 59,000 enterprises over the period, an increase of almost 20% year-on-year. 

The number of people in their 30s who started their own businesses saw a 5.6% increase. 

But the number of older entrepreneurs declined, with entrepreneurs in their 40s and 50s falling by 11.9% and 24.4% year-on-year, respectively.

Younger job seekers have been hit hard due to the pandemic. The jobless rate among workers aged 15 to 29 increased from 3.5 percentage points in December 2019, to 24.3% in May 2021. 

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“The ongoing recovery of the local job market is concentrated in a certain age and industry. Various measures should be taken to create jobs for the manufacturing industry and those in their 30s and 40s,” said Noh Min-sun, a researcher at the Korea Small Business Institute, reports The Korea Herald.