The share of young people who have gone more than a year after graduation without finding work has risen to its highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis, according to the Ministry of Statistics' supplementary survey on youth labor force participation for May 2026. Pictured is a job-placement center at a Seoul university. [Yonhap]
The share of young people who have gone more than a year after graduation without finding work has risen to its highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis, according to the Ministry of Statistics' supplementary survey on youth labor force participation for May 2026. Pictured is a job-placement center at a Seoul university. [Yonhap]

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employment and Labor Education Institute are searching for outstanding job-support cases under the National Employment Support Program, with the aim of spreading successful approaches nationwide.

The two organizations announced Wednesday the launch of the "2026 National Employment Support Program Best Practice Competition." The contest is designed to identify and disseminate exemplary cases from the program's front lines, strengthen the system's effectiveness, and improve the quality of field-centered employment services.

Submissions are accepted in four categories: career counseling, case-management coaching, building job-support models for youth and middle-aged workers, and inter-agency linkage and collaboration.

In the career counseling category, eligible entries include cases where employment and welfare services were coordinated to help participants secure jobs, innovations in employment services using AI or new counseling processes, and cases where work experience or vocational training was used to build job skills. Tailored job-matching and placement cases that account for the characteristics of specific groups — such as young people and women — are also eligible.

The group category seeks job-support service models tailored to the needs of participants such as youth and middle-aged workers, as well as collaboration cases involving employment centers, private consignment agencies, and related institutions. Cases in which employment and welfare services were linked with job-seeking activities to support vulnerable groups are also eligible.

Individual applicants must be staff at private consignment agencies, partner or collaborative institutions, or employment center officials involved in operating the National Employment Support Program. Organizations eligible for the group category include local governments, women's re-employment centers, self-sufficiency support agencies, the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency, and other institutions that partner with the program, as well as employment centers and private consignment agencies.

The submission period runs from Wednesday through Sept. 16. Applicants can download the entry form from the competition board on the Korea Employment and Labor Education Institute's website and submit their cases there. After two rounds of judging, the final winners will be announced Oct. 30.

A total of 45 entries will be recognized. The three grand-prize winners will each receive a commendation from the Minister of Employment and Labor and 2 million won ($1,410) in Onuri gift vouchers. Seven excellence-award winners will each receive 1.5 million won in vouchers, 15 merit-award winners will receive 1 million won each, and 20 encouragement-award winners will receive 500,000 won each. Prizes will be presented at the National Employment Support Program Best Practice Conference, scheduled for Dec. 3.

Winning entries will be compiled into a casebook and produced as e-learning content for use at employment service sites across the country.

Lee Jong-seon, president of the Korea Employment and Labor Education Institute, said the organization hopes "to share the vivid achievements from the field with the public and to see the outstanding cases identified through this competition spread widely throughout the program." He urged practitioners working on employment support to "take a keen interest and participate actively."


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