Education and Labor Market Outcomes in Korea

The study examined the prevailing assumption of education’s role in labor market outcomes using samples from Korea's young adult population. KEEP, collected annually by KRIVET since 2004, includes an initial sample in 2004 of 12th graders from both general and vocational high schools; the sample size reflected a total of 2 000 students for each school type. In 2006, a similar sampling was taken with 11th graders from special-purposed high schools for study; the sample size reflected a total of 600 students. In this study, the respondents’ income-, social origin-, and education-related data were collected, and the multiple regression method was used to analyze the aforementioned data. The study examined the association between social origin and/or education and labor market outcomes, but given the prevalence of private tutoring in Korea, the study separated the examination of private tutoring recipients and compared their results to those of all general respondents. The findings revealed, against assumption, that the actual overall effect of education on income is weak, and there is no effect, especially, on private tutoring recipients. And if and when an association does exist, education appears to affect income negatively. On the other hand, social origin shows its statistical significance in its association with income across the groups; and among social origin components, the father’s educational level and employment type appear to be predictors.