[123RF]
[123RF]

Unmarried young people who are neither employed nor actively looking for work spend the bulk of their discretionary time — outside of sleep and meals — on media consumption and gaming, a new report shows.

According to a report titled "How Do Youth Spend Their Day?: A Comparative Analysis of Time Use by Employment Status" by Cho Seong-ho, published in the August issue of Health and Welfare Forum, a monthly journal of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, non-job-seeking youth on weekdays devoted 69.9 percent of their day to essential activities such as sleep and meals (12 hours 38 minutes, or 52.7 percent) and media and gaming (4 hours 8 minutes, or 17.2 percent).

On weekends, the same group spent 79.4 percent of their day on essential activities (13 hours 2 minutes, or 54.3 percent) and media and gaming (6 hours 2 minutes, or 25.1 percent).

Meanwhile, employed youth on weekdays allocated 11 hours 11 minutes (46.6 percent) to essential activities and 8 hours 2 minutes (33.5 percent) to work. Media and gaming came next at 2 hours 4 minutes (8.6 percent), with all remaining activities accounting for less than an hour each.

For youth actively preparing for employment on weekdays, essential activities (11 hours 52 minutes, or 49.5 percent) and studying or job-seeking (4 hours 12 minutes, or 17.5 percent) were the primary uses of time. Media and gaming stood at 3 hours 42 minutes (15.4 percent) — about 1.5 times that of employed youth. Job-seeking youth also spent at least an hour each on household chores and caregiving, socializing and civic participation, and active leisure.

The gaps between groups were also pronounced on weekends.

Employed youth saw their time on essential activities rise to 12 hours 57 minutes (54.0 percent) and media and gaming to 3 hours 22 minutes (14.0 percent), though they still logged 2 hours 50 minutes (11.8 percent) of work. Time on household chores, socializing and civic participation, and active leisure each slightly exceeded one hour.

Among job-seeking youth on weekends, essential activities rose to 12 hours 27 minutes (51.9 percent) and media and gaming to 4 hours 26 minutes (18.4 percent).

*Time amounts and percentages reflect household-member-weighted values. [Author's analysis of raw data from the '2024 Time Use Survey' (Ministry of Statistics)]
*Time amounts and percentages reflect household-member-weighted values. [Author's analysis of raw data from the '2024 Time Use Survey' (Ministry of Statistics)]

The report paid particular attention to how young people subjectively perceive their time.

Feelings of time scarcity on both weekdays and weekends were highest among employed youth, followed by job-seeking youth and then non-job-seeking youth. Employed and job-seeking youth reported somewhat less time pressure on weekends than on weekdays, while non-job-seeking youth actually felt more pressed for time on weekends.

Fatigue levels followed a similar pattern: non-job-seeking youth reported feeling more tired on weekends than both non-job-seeking youth on weekdays and job-seeking youth on weekends.

The report attributed this to the relatively light time pressure non-job-seeking youth face from work or job searching even on weekdays, which blurs the distinction between weekdays and weekends for that group.

Cho Seong-ho, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the report's author, called for tailored policy responses for each group. "For employed youth, policies should support rest and work-life balance, while job-seeking youth need support for the sustainability and quality of their job-preparation activities — such as access to employment information and career counseling," he said.

Cho also stressed that non-job-seeking youth should not be treated as a uniform group in need of support. "They are a heterogeneous group whose situations vary — some are engaged in household roles, others face health constraints, and others left jobs involuntarily," he said. "Rather than assuming they are all vulnerable or in need of assistance, policies should take a comprehensive approach that considers income, employment status and health conditions."


thlee@heraldcorp.com