80,000 Applicants for the '8 Major Professional Jobs'
16% Increase Compared to Last Year...Growing Preference
Kim Mo (31, male), who graduated from a university in Seoul and is currently working at a large corporation, recently stopped making evening plans. After leaving work at 6 p.m., he quickly finishes dinner and heads to a study cafe. Among young students, Kim is dedicating himself to studying for the Certified Labor Consultant exam. Kim said, "There is no guarantee that I can stay at the company until retirement age, so I started studying for a better future," adding, "Although starting late is not easy, I believe that as long as I pass, it will be a success."
Law School Admission Test (LEET) examinees are checking the examination site at Gyeonggi High School in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]
As preference for stable and high-paying professional jobs grows, the number of applicants for the so-called '8 major professional exams' has surpassed 80,000 this year. Compared to last year, this is an increase of about 16%, and the popularity by occupation seems to have changed from the past. While the number of applicants for real estate appraisers surged by 44% compared to the previous year, the number of applicants for accountants, who had the highest number of applicants until last year, slowed down and ceded the top spot to tax accountants.
On the 7th, Asia Economy analyzed the number of applicants for the first-round exams of seven professional jobs and the Law School Admission Test (LEET) for law school applications, as announced by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service, the National Tax Service, and the Association of Law Schools. The total number of applicants was 80,163, a 15.8% increase from 69,184 last year. The 8 major professional jobs typically refer to lawyers, certified public accountants, judicial scriveners, customs brokers, tax accountants, patent attorneys, real estate appraisers, and certified labor consultants. The origin of the term '8 major professional jobs' is known to come from the 'Constitutional Court Public Official Evaluation Rules,' where these eight certifications receive additional points for promotion to grade 5.
This year, the number of applicants increased in six exams: LEET, certified public accountant, judicial scrivener, labor consultant, real estate appraiser, and tax accountant. Real estate appraisers (6,484), LEET (17,360), judicial scriveners (7,616), and tax accountants (16,817) recorded the highest number of applicants ever. Certified public accountants had 15,940 applicants, and certified labor consultants had 10,225 applicants. In particular, the number of real estate appraiser applicants increased by 43.8% compared to last year (4,509). The characteristic of real estate appraisers, whose income increases even during recessions along with high salaries, drove the rise in applicants. Professor Seo Jin-hyung of the Department of Real Estate at Gyeongin Women's University said, "The main task of real estate appraisers is real estate appraisal, and the more properties go to auction due to a difficult economy, the more advantageous it is for real estate appraisers," adding, "There is a perception that they receive high salaries among professionals, and the fact that income is guaranteed even when the economy is not good seems to be the background for the surge in applicants." The number of certified labor consultant applicants also increased by 23.7% compared to the previous year, which is analyzed to be due to increased demand for labor consultants following the implementation of the Workplace Harassment Prevention Act.
On the other hand, the number of applicants for certified public accountants, one of the popular professional jobs, slowed down. In 2021, 13,458 people applied for the certified public accountant exam, surpassing the 12,494 applicants for tax accountants that year, making it the most applied-for exam among the 8 major professional jobs. However, this year, the number of applicants increased by only 3.4% compared to the previous year, and tax accountants, whose applicants increased by 14.3%, once again took the top spot for the most applicants. The cause is attributed to the expectation that most accounting firms will reduce hiring in the future, the contraction of the corporate mergers and acquisitions market due to the economic downturn, and the decline in consulting demand, which worsened the performance of the deal (advisory) sector. Professor Kim Beom-jun of the Department of Accounting at Catholic University said, "This year, the situation of accounting firms is so bad that it is closer to restructuring than hiring. From the examinees' perspective, even if they pass the CPA exam, it will be difficult to join a large accounting firm," adding, "The number of CPA exam applicants is not expected to increase significantly for a while."
Meanwhile, the background for the intensifying preference for professional jobs is job stability and high salaries. According to a recent survey by Eduwill of 293 adults aged 20 to 40 on the reasons for preferring professional qualification exams, 63.8% of respondents (multiple answers allowed) said "job stability," and 48.5% answered "high salary."
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