"Satisfied with Earning Just 1 Million Won a Month"…Young Job Seekers Pursuing the 'Priter' Lifestyle

44.8% Say "It Can't Be Helped"
One in Four Earns "500,000 to 1,000,000 Won per Month"

The number of young people known as 'freeters,' who live solely on part-time jobs without holding regular employment, is steadily increasing.

Recently, Hankyung.com reported the results of a survey conducted by JobKorea. Among the 949 respondents, including job seekers, university students, and part-time workers, 60.6% (575 people) identified themselves as freeters. This is a 4.6 percentage point increase from the 56% reported in a similar survey conducted by JobKorea seven years ago in 2017.

On the 15th, job seekers visiting the '2024 Hope Happiness Future Job Fair' hosted by Yeongdeungpo-gu, Hankyung Association Middle-aged Tomorrow Center, Seoul Southern Employment and Labor Office, and Yeongdeungpo Women's Workforce Development Center at the FKI Tower in Yeouido, Seoul, were filling out job application forms. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

The majority of freeters are in their 20s and 30s, with 85.7% (493 people) of all respondents falling into this age group. Among them, 44.8% (221 people) became freeters voluntarily, while more than half of the rest said they live on part-time jobs out of necessity. The decisive reason for becoming a freeter is the difficulty in finding full-time employment. About 40% (200 people, multiple responses allowed) of this age group said they became freeters because "it is hard to find a job." Other reasons included "needing to earn living expenses or pocket money immediately" (37.1%), "wanting to live freely without organizational or social life" (36.5%), and "having specific goals such as language study or graduate school" (14.8%). Additionally, some responded that they became freeters because they "have no financial greed" (12.1%) or "cannot go to work every day" (11.8%). The increase in the minimum wage also seems to have influenced the rise in freeters. Forty-eight respondents (8.3%) said they became freeters because they believed they could live on the minimum hourly wage earned from part-time jobs.

The monthly income of freeters in their 20s and 30s varied widely, ranging from less than 500,000 KRW to 3 million KRW, but the largest group earned between 500,000 and less than 1 million KRW per month (27.6%, 136 people). This was followed by ▲1 million to less than 1.5 million KRW (24.5%), ▲1.5 million to less than 2 million KRW (19.3%), and ▲2 million to less than 2.5 million KRW (8.5%). The percentage of those earning between 2.5 million and less than 3 million KRW was 2.6%.

On May 21st, job seekers visiting the Mid-sized Companies Job Fair held at COEX in Seoul lined up in front of the registration desk waiting to enter. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Satisfaction with the freeter lifestyle was relatively high. Those who were satisfied accounted for 36.5% (180 people), higher than the 21.1% (104 people) who were dissatisfied, while 42.4% responded that they felt "neutral."

When asked whether they expect the number of freeters to continue increasing, the majority, 90% (854 people), answered "yes," while only 10% (95 people) thought it would not increase. The most common reason for expecting an increase was "many young people are tired of organizational and social life," at 56.2% (480 people, multiple responses allowed). Other reasons included ▲difficulty in finding regular employment (52.6%), ▲annual increases in the minimum wage (33.5%), ▲many young people prioritizing current happiness (25.5%), and ▲expectations that part-time job opportunities will increase (3%).

The term 'freeter' is a compound of the English word 'free' and the German word 'arbeiter,' meaning 'worker.' It is a neologism coined in Japan in the early 1990s after the collapse of the bubble economy to describe young people who sustain themselves solely through part-time jobs without regular employment.