Ph.D. Holders Surpass 10,000 in Korea

The number of people who received Ph.D.s from local universities last year exceeded 10,000 for the first time, the Korean Educational Development Institute said Thursday.

Analysts here say that a growing number of highly educated individuals are vying for limited well-paying office jobs, adding the deepening "academic inflation" is further aggravating the already dire employment conditions among those in their late 20s and 30s.

The institute said the number of Koreans receiving Ph.D.s from domestic universities in 2009 totaled 10,322, up from 9,710 the previous year. In 1985, local universities only conferred 1,400 doctorate degrees. From 1985 through 2009, a total of 14,768 people received Ph.D.s.

The figure has continued to head upward over the past 24 years as more schools offer advanced graduate programs in various academic fields, with individuals pursuing higher scholastic goals. In 2009, Korean universities offered a combined 19,847 doctoral positions, up sharply from 13,052 in 2000.

The number of Ph.D. holders per every 10,000 Koreans rose to 2.1 last year, from 0.3 in 1985 and 1.5 in 2000, the institute said.

"An increasing number of people have entered graduate schools, with businesses seeking more highly-educated human resources specializing in engineering, medical and other academic fields. But at the same time, many have chosen to study further because they cannot find the job they are looking for amid the tight labor market, creating academic inflation," said Kim Sung-taek, director general at the Korea Labor Institute.

According to Statistics Korea, 81.9 percent of high school graduates entered universities in 2009, up from 33.2 percent in 1990.

Kim said the problem is that employers here don't need as many university graduates and Ph.D. holders as are currently produced. "The surging number of academic overachievers is a failure of the nation's education system and is worsening the labor market conditions, creating an employment mismatch."

He said these highly educated Koreans are only looking for "decent" jobs at large companies and public organizations, while shunning positions at small businesses, which offer lower wages and fewer benefits. Small enterprises suffer from a chronic worker shortage and have to employ staff from China and Southeast Asian nations.

"Many academic overachievers choose to remain unemployed rather than work for small firms, obstructing the efficient allocation of human resources in the Korean economy. This trend has made unemployment among young people worse than it should be," Kim stressed.

In February, the jobless rate for those aged between 15 and 29 reached 10 percent, up from 9.3 percent in January. It was the highest figure since it hit 10.1 percent in February 2000. This is more than twice the overall official unemployment rate of 4.9 percent.

Original Artical by KT here.

Racial Discrimination Complaints Rise Sharply

The number of petitions against racial and religious discrimination doubled last year from five years earlier.

The National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday that it received 64 complaints in 2010 regarding discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, ethnicity and skin color, doubling from the 32 cases filed in 2005.

The increasing reports of discrimination have drawn attention as more and more foreigners seek work in Korea. There are a total 1.26 million people with an international background in Korea, making up 2.9 percent of the population.

Other reports say that an inflow of migrant workers have resulted in the expat population boom. Many find work in low-paying blue collar positions or immigrate as brides.

The issue of multiculturalism has recently drawn attention as confessed Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik was an opponent of multiculturalism and cited Korea and Japan as model countries.

Meanwhile, the number of children with international background, who are six and younger, surged 46.1 percent this year from 64,040 in 2009 to 93,537 in January.

The number of total international minors who are 18 and younger also jumped by 43,465 during the same period from 107,689 to 151,154.

Children under age 6 with international backgrounds take up roughly 2.9 percent of the population of Korean children, according to a census on foreigners here by the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety on Tuesday.

As of January, 2011, there are 93,537 children from foreign or multicultural backgrounds living here. In that age group the proportion is four percentage points higher than the overall proportion of people with a foreign background in the Korean population.

The 1,265,006 total foreign residents include migrant workers and wives, students, naturalized citizens and children of international marriages.

There are 17,304 multicultural children who are 1-year-old, 15,584 children who are 3, and 7,995 who are 6-years-old.

Those with Vietnamese parents make up the greatest chunk at 29,997, with Chinese close behind at 20,418 and Filipinos at 8,466 people. Also included in the list are Japanese, Cambodian, Mongolian and Thai.

Original Report here.

New Citizens & Multiculturalism in South Korea

A very good article can be read here by ISIS .ORG

Foreign Brides in Korea

South Korea has been grappling with shifting demographics that have left many middle-aged men – particularly in the countryside – cut adrift amid a potential-wife deficit in a country that prizes the rosy picture of marriage.
As young – and now assertive – Korean women flock from their hometowns for careers in the big cities, the men left behind are increasingly looking overseas for brides. That has meant an influx from poorer Asian nations such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Mongolia. Government figures show the number of Koreans marrying foreign spouses increased from 4,710 in 1990 to 33,300 in 2009. And numbers are expected to continue rising.
Read here

Korea to share development knowhow

South Korea rose from the ashes of the war to become one of the world’s economic powers. Noticeably, the once aid-recipient recently became an international provider of development assistance, as part of efforts to become a “Global Korea.”Korea would like to share its development model with other developing countries repoted the Korea Times.“Korea is the only country whose status has been upgraded to a major donor from an aid recipient,” even President Obama of the United States lauded South Korea’s education and employment systems.”
The nations are interested in Korea’s e-Government network, management of public servants and their evaluation system.

The e-Government of Korea is the most popular area, while underdeveloped nations are eager to learning about the “Saemaeul” or New Village Movement, a government-run rural development campaign dating back to the 1970s.

South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnam and Belarus earlier this year on the E-Government program. “Korea’s e-government network system is referred to as one of the best in the world,” he said. “We can share our e-Government technology with developing nations in a customized manner.”

High Rate of Death and Accidents in South Korean Industries

Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korean workers are highly exposed to workplace accidents compared to those in other countries among the world's major economies, a government report said Monday.

   Last year, an average of six people died and 270 got injured at workplaces in South Korea on a daily basis, which topped the list among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to the report by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

   During the reported year, the report also said, economic losses arising from industrial accidents reached 17.6 trillion won (US$16.2 billion), which is enough to employ an additional 880,000 workers with annual salaries of 20 million won.

   In addition, the loss of working days due to workplace accidents last year was more than 100 times the number of lost working days resulting from strikes and other reasons.

   In 2010, 98,645 workers suffered injuries at workplaces and about 2,200 of them died, the report said.

Compulsory insurance for foreign workers

All South Korean companies hiring foreign manual workers will be required from later this year to subscribe to the departure-expiration insurance to pay their retirement benefits, the labor ministry said today.
Owners of smaller firms hiring at least five foreigners with E-9 or H-2 visas are currently required to subscribe to the departure-expiration insurance to ensure that retirement benefits are paid before the departure of a worker.
Those visas are given to foreign manual workers hired under the country''s "employment permit system." The Cabinet approved a bill expanding the coverage of mandatory subscription to companies with four or less alien workers, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said.
The revised enforcement ordinance to the law on the employment of foreign workers is set to go into effect on August 1 as no parliamentary consent is necessary, it said.
South Korea hires some 40,000 foreign workers every year through the employment permit system to resolve chronic manpower shortage in the sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, livestock and fishing farms.
Detail reference is Here

Changing issues in Migration

A nice article on 'proper old skool'!

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