Average Annual Salary of 100 Million Won... Quitting the Office to Aim for 'Kingsanjik' [Youth Report]

High Interest Among Job Seekers in 'Kingsanjik' Recruitment News
Rising Popularity of Production Jobs Due to Changing Work Values and AI Emergence
Youths Challenging Wallpaper Installers and Tilers

In the first half of this year’s job market, Hyundai Motor’s technical positions (production jobs), which sparked a sensation with the 'Kingsanjik (King + production job)' craze, are set to have additional recruitment. Hyundai Motor’s production jobs, with an average annual salary approaching 100 million KRW, are highly popular among the 2030 generation due to industry-leading wages and various welfare benefits. As a result, a large number of applicants are expected to flood this recruitment as well.

Initially, production jobs were avoided among college graduates seeking employment. However, as the younger generation’s job values change and generative AI technologies like ChatGPT increasingly threaten office jobs, the popularity of production jobs appears to be rising.

Hyundai Motor to Hire 400 'Kingsanjik' Again After One Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to industry sources, Hyundai Motor will accept applications for technical positions from the 18th to the 28th of this month in 2024. This follows an agreement in this year’s labor-management negotiations to hire 800 new employees due to a large number of retirements. The recruitment scale includes 392 people at the Ulsan plant, including 12 who did not join this year, and 20 at the Namyang Research Center, totaling 412. After document screening, aptitude tests and interviews will be conducted, with final successful candidates announced in April next year. Entry and placement will take place twice between May and July next year.

Job seekers expect hundreds of thousands of applicants for this recruitment. Earlier, in March, Hyundai Motor’s production job recruitment attracted about 180,000 applicants for 400 positions, rumored to have a competition ratio of 450 to 1. However, Hyundai Motor has not disclosed the exact number of applicants.

The attraction to Hyundai Motor’s production jobs lies in the high salary level and various welfare benefits. The average annual salary per person at Hyundai Motor was 105 million KRW as of last year. In addition, a retirement age of 60 is guaranteed, and even after retirement, employees can work one more year as contract workers. While employed, employees can purchase Hyundai vehicles at up to a 30% discount, and after retirement (for those with over 25 years of long-term service), they can receive lifelong discounts of up to 25%, earning these jobs the nickname 'the job of gods' among job seekers.

"Income Over Personal Development"… Changing Job Values of the MZ Generation

Recently, various "blue-collar" occupations, such as carpenters, have been attracting attention. [Image source=Pixabay]

Traditionally, production jobs were not preferred among college graduates due to the perception of being 'blue-collar.' The term 'blue-collar' refers to manual laborers engaged in production work, originating from the blue work uniforms they wear.

However, as the job values of the MZ generation change, interest in production jobs is increasing. Initially, young people prioritized 'personal development potential' when choosing jobs. Recently, however, values such as 'earned income' and 'work-life balance' have become more prominent, leading to changes in job preferences.

In March, the Korea Industrial Research Institute analyzed the importance of 16 job value factors for 104,511 college graduates from 2008 to 2019 using the Graduate Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS). The results showed that 'working hours' and 'workload' were the factors whose importance increased the most over 12 years in job value judgments.

In a 2008 survey of job value preferences among college graduates, personal development potential ranked first, followed by job (employment) stability, earned income, aptitude and interest, working environment and welfare benefits, working hours, and workload.

However, in the recent survey, the factors with the greatest increase in importance over 12 years were working hours and earned income. Working hours rose from 6th to 2nd place, and earned income rose from 3rd to 1st place. Conversely, personal development potential dropped significantly from 1st to 6th place.

In other words, in the past, jobs with low pay but growth potential were preferred. Now, there is higher demand for jobs that satisfy both income and work-life balance.

A survey conducted by the AI matching recruitment content platform Catch among 2,446 Gen Z job seekers on the topic of 'office job with 30 million KRW salary vs. technical job with 50 million KRW salary' found that 72% of respondents chose the '50 million KRW technical job.'

White-Collar Workers Losing Ground… Job Loss Threatened by AI Expansion

[Image source=Pixabay]

Some are also attracted to technical jobs because they believe they will be rewarded according to their efforts. Recently, regardless of age or gender, there is a trend of challenging physically demanding jobs such as carpentry and heavy equipment operation.

Examples of young people challenging technical jobs can be easily found not only on YouTube but also in entertainment programs. In November last year, Yu Taekgeun, who quit a pharmaceutical company after six months and became a novice tile worker, appeared on tvN’s 'You Quiz on the Block,' drawing attention.

He explained his reason for becoming a tile worker: "My position was easily replaceable by others. Seeing that, I wanted to develop my value and become irreplaceable. From then on, I started looking for work I could do for a long time."

He added, "Many people say that field jobs are mostly manual labor or rough work. In the case of tiling, I strive to reduce errors to 1mm and work hard to produce results."

Meanwhile, the development of AI is expected to accelerate the popularity of blue-collar jobs. This is because office workers, who belong to white-collar jobs, are facing job threats due to AI.

In fact, in May, the U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing statistics from the nonprofit organization Employ America, that about 150,000 U.S. white-collar workers lost their jobs from January to March this year due to the spread of AI and other factors.

On the other hand, demand for blue-collar workers in various fields is expected to steadily increase. Among the '20 occupations expected to grow by 2031' predicted by the U.S. Department of Labor, most are blue-collar jobs. Restaurant cooks, restaurant and grocery store workers, and freight transporters ranked high, while white-collar jobs mentioned included only software developers.