The Korea Herald

소아쌤

Number of workers with degrees nearly doubles

By Korea Herald

Published : Dec. 23, 2012 - 19:33

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The number of workers with university degrees nearly doubled while the average age of the workforce got older in the past decade, data from Ministry of Employment and Labor showed on Sunday.

There were a total of 17.39 million salaried workers in 2011, up 27.4 percent from 12.65 million in 2001. Among them, 30 percent, or 5.4 million workers, have a four-year college degree, up by 88 percent from 2.87 million in 2001.

And 2.58 million of those workers have a two-year college degree while the majority, 8.24 million people, have completed high school, up by 83 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from 10 years ago, according to the ministry.

The data also showed that the average age for the Korean workforce was 39.6 last year, up three-years from 36.5 in 2001. Meanwhile, the average working hours dropped to 189.3 hours a month, from 204.9 hours a decade ago.

(596story@heraldcorp.com)