South Koreans aged between 15 and 29 grabbed a disgraceful third place in the ratio of “neither employed nor in education or training” among the corresponding age groups of 33 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The proportion of the so-called NEET generally points to people who have been unemployed for so long that they have become economically “inactive” and are no longer seeking jobs. 

Those in education include those attending part-time or full-time education, but exclude those in nonformal education and in educational activities of very short duration.

According to the OECD report, Korea’s NEET youth of 15 to 29 took up about 15.6 percent of the corresponding youth group, far higher than the OECD members’ average 8.2 percent. This third after only Turkey’s 24.9 percent and Mexico’s 18.5 percent.

Next in the NEET ratio rankings came Italy at 14.4 percent, followed by Hungary 11.3 percent, United States 10.8 percent and Israel 10.0 percent.

Among the better-off economies were Japan with a NEET ratio of 4.6 percent, Switzerland 4.5 percent and Sweden 4.4 percent. Luxemburg boasted the lowest NEET ratio at 2.6 percent.

According to an earlier report by Hyundai Research Institute, about 42.9 percent of Korean NEETs have never been employed. Other NEETs have chosen inactivity after working at low-quality jobs, the institute said.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)