"Even if the job is tough, earning 50 million won annually is preferred"… Gen Z job seekers favor 'technical positions'

"Technical Jobs with Higher Salaries than Low-Paid Office Jobs"
Trend of Challenging Physically Demanding Occupations Increasing

Seven out of ten Gen Z job seekers prefer a "technical position with an annual salary of 50 million KRW" over a "clerical position with an annual salary of 30 million KRW."

Mr. Lee (31), who gave up a job he had been engaged in for over three years to attend a vocational school and become a carpenter working at construction sites. The photo shows the practice site at the vocational school.
[Photo by Mr. Lee]

On the 24th, Catch, an AI matching recruitment content platform by Jinhaksa, conducted a survey from the 10th to the 16th targeting 2,446 Gen Z job seekers on the theme of "30 million KRW clerical job vs. 50 million KRW technical job." The results showed that 72% of Gen Z job seekers preferred the "technical position with an annual salary of 50 million KRW."

They were also asked whether they would be willing to work in a technical position if conditions such as salary and work-life balance were favorable. As a result, a remarkable 77% answered "willing."

Catch added, "This can be interpreted as a change in job preference, breaking the stereotype that clerical jobs are more preferred."

The main reason for their willingness to work in technical positions was "being rewarded according to effort," which accounted for 58%.

Following that were ▲"possessing skills that are difficult to replace" (23%) ▲"being able to work without worrying about retirement age" (8%) ▲"being able to use time relatively freely" (6%) ▲"less stress from organizational life" (4%), among others.

Also, the most important factor for Gen Z job seekers when choosing a workplace was "salary," at 47%.

Next were ▲working environment (14%) ▲welfare benefits (12%) ▲personal development potential (11%) ▲aptitude and interest (11%) ▲working hours (4%) ▲job stability (2%) in that order.

Kim Jeonghyun, head of the Catch division at Jinhaksa, explained, "Gen Z, who values salary above all, finds technical jobs highly attractive because they can be rewarded according to their efforts. Recently, regardless of gender, there is a trend of boldly challenging physically demanding jobs such as carpenters and wallpaper installers."

On the other hand, the main reason for not wanting to work in technical positions was "it seems physically demanding," which accounted for 36%.

Other reasons included ▲"working conditions seem poor" (31%) ▲"learning the skills seems difficult" (17%) ▲"working hours are not fixed" (8%) ▲"job security seems hard to guarantee" (5%).