Increasing Number of 2030 Young Public Officials Resigning
Caused by Outdated Culture and Malicious Complaints
"Must Have a Sense of Crisis and Prepare Countermeasures"
In the public sector, which is popular as a "lifetime job," resignations among young public officials in their 20s and 30s with relatively short years of service are continuing.
According to data submitted by local governments to Park Jeong-hyun, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, for the national audit on the 10th, the number of public officials who resigned within three years of appointment was 8,773 last year. This figure has been increasing steadily, with 7,462 in 2021, 8,492 in 2022, and 8,773 in 2023. Notably, the number more than doubled in five years from 4,099 in 2019.
Additionally, the number of resignations (voluntary departures) among general national public officials in their 20s was 543 in 2020, 657 in 2022, and 593 in 2023. The number of resignations among 2030 local public officials in the 17 metropolitan local governments and basic local governments within the regions is even higher. For those in their 20s, the numbers increased continuously from 1,094 in 2020, 1,509 in 2021, 1,541 in 2022, to 1,635 in 2023. For those in their 30s, the figures also rose during the same period from 1,889, 2,345, 2,649, to 2,519. Among these cases, there were instances of officials resigning immediately after appointment.
Park identified the main reasons why young public officials decide to resign early as "a pay system unfavorable to lower-ranking officials," "rigid organizational culture," and "malicious civil complaints." Regarding the government's measures such as a 3% salary increase for public officials next year and the introduction of an emergency job suspension system, he pointed out, "Although the issue of early resignation among frontline young public officials has been continuously raised, there is no sign of improvement," and added, "It is questionable whether these stopgap measures can fundamentally prevent the outflow of young public officials." He also urged, "The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Personnel Management must recognize this as a crisis concerning the future of the public sector and work hard to prepare effective countermeasures."
In fact, dissatisfaction among young public officials can be easily found on social networking services (SNS) such as YouTube. They cited issues such as low salaries compared to the cost of living, a conservative culture that does not align with the tendencies of the MZ generation, unsatisfactory public official pensions, stress caused by various civil complaints, and increasing workloads for lower ranks.
Netizens who heard the news responded with comments like, "If the treatment is poor after studying hard and passing the exam, I would quit too," "Being tormented by malicious civil complaints is a big issue," and "If the public sector collapses, ultimately the people suffer."
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