Analysis of 3,999 young workers from Korea Employment Information Service panel data

Each job change linked to 4.78% wage increase

Engineering majors benefit more; women and humanities graduates see limited gains

Job change [Image generated with ChatGPT]
Job change [Image generated with ChatGPT]

Young workers in South Korea see their wages rise by an average of 4.78 percent each time they change jobs, according to new research — though the benefits vary sharply by gender, academic major and region, with some groups at risk of losing career ground rather than gaining it.

Kim Su-gyeong, a professor at Pyeongtaek University's College of Liberal Arts, presented the findings Sunday at an academic conference on employment panel research hosted by the Korea Employment Information Service.

Kim analyzed data from 3,999 young workers whose employment status and wage information could be verified through the service's Youth Panel (YP2021). The average number of job changes among the group was 1.68. Young workers in the Greater Seoul area changed jobs more frequently, averaging 1.85 times, compared with 1.52 times for those outside the metropolitan area.

Wages also favored the metropolitan area. Workers there earned a monthly average of 2.895 million won, compared with 2.424 million won for those outside the region, suggesting that both labor mobility and economic rewards are more active in Greater Seoul.

By gender, women changed jobs more often on average — 1.78 times — than men at 1.62 times. By education level, high school graduates changed jobs most frequently at an average of 1.95 times, followed by two-year college graduates at 1.82 times, four-year university graduates at 1.65 times and graduate degree holders at 1.42 times.

The research found that each additional job change was associated with a 4.78 percent average wage increase, suggesting that changing jobs can serve as a meaningful tool for young workers to boost their real income.

However, the wage gains from job changes were not uniform across all groups.

For men, the wage boost was particularly pronounced when a job change involved relocating to a different region. For women, by contrast, the wage effect of geographic relocation was not statistically significant. Women also suffered larger wage losses than men when job changes disrupted their tenure.

Differences by academic major were also notable. Engineering graduates who relocated for a new job saw relatively strong wage gains, while those who majored in the humanities or social sciences saw limited benefits. Engineering majors also experienced smaller wage losses from tenure disruption, whereas humanities and social science graduates faced steeper wage declines when their work history was interrupted.

"Engineering skills are highly transferable across companies, so they lose little value when workers change jobs," Kim said. "Skills in the humanities and social sciences, by contrast, tend to be more dependent on experience within a specific organization."

"Job changing is not a ladder that offers equal opportunity to all young workers," she added. "For some groups it can mean a loss of career assets, so tailored career management support is needed to reduce inequality in the labor market."


fact0514@heraldcorp.com