Busan’s Labor Market: A Quantity-Quality Disconnect

BUSAN, South Korea — On paper, Busan looks like a city bursting with opportunity. South Korea’s second-largest metropolis is a magnet for international conferences, cruise ships, and global tourists. But beneath the neon lights and seaside allure, a quieter crisis is unfolding: young people are preparing to leave—not because there are no jobs, but because too few of them are worth staying for.

While job postings in Busan have increased, and the city invests heavily in promoting employment in the tourism and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) sectors, many of its young residents see little future in the roles on offer. Instead, they’re choosing between two paths: studying for public-sector exams or planning a one-way move to Seoul.

At the heart of this trend is a structural contradiction. Busan is creating jobs—but not careers. And without sustainable, dignified employment, the city is struggling to retain the very generation it needs to thrive.

The core of the problem is structural. Busan’s economy, once driven by manufacturing and maritime industries, is now increasingly dependent on the tourism and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) sectors. While these industries are effective at producing high volumes of jobs, they are less successful at producing jobs that young people actually want to keep. With low wages, limited benefits, and few long-term growth opportunities, many of these roles are seen as temporary waystations rather than career foundations.

That sentiment is showing up starkly in public-sector exam figures. In April 2025, the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education recorded a 15.2:1 average competition ratio for its civil servant hiring exam, the highest among major cities in Korea. Seoul’s corresponding figure was 12.7:1. This marks a reversal of national trends, where civil service has generally become less attractive among young people. In Busan, however, it remains one of the few perceived avenues to secure a stable, livable job.

The demographic breakdown of applicants tells its own story. Women made up two-thirds of test-takers. Youth in their 20s and early 30s dominated the rolls. These patterns are not coincidental—they align with the population segments most affected by the limitations of Busan’s private-sector labor market. For many in these groups, the tourism and hospitality roles that dominate new job postings offer neither the wages nor the long-term prospects they need to stay in the city.

Recent policy efforts are attempting to shift the tide. In April, the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced a new round of tourism and MICE sector employment subsidies. Under the initiative, small companies that hire young workers full-time are eligible for up to KRW 2.4 million per hire. Additional funds are available to improve employee welfare—up to KRW 400,000 per person for things like vacation stipends or cultural activities. Existing workers who serve as mentors can receive up to KRW 1 million for their support.

At face value, these are generous figures. But critics say they fail to address the underlying problem: the jobs themselves are often unattractive beyond the subsidy period. Many of the roles are tied to seasonal or event-based schedules, offer limited upward mobility, and are concentrated in small companies that lack structured training or career progression pathways.

"These programs are like pouring water into a bottomless jar,” said one policy analyst who works with youth employment programs in the city. “They create short-term employment surges, but they don’t solve the quality problem. Young people don’t just want jobs—they want careers.”

This perspective is echoed by those on the ground. A 28-year-old job seeker interviewed at a MICE recruitment fair described her dilemma bluntly: “I’ve worked events and hotels, but it feels like starting from zero every time. I’m studying for the civil service exam—not because I dream of being a bureaucrat, but because it’s the only path that feels stable.”

Such comments reflect a broader disconnect between Busan’s economic development priorities and the expectations of its emerging workforce. While the city continues to attract major events and tourist flows, the labor infrastructure supporting those activities has failed to modernize. Many firms remain family-run or underfunded. Labor laws governing gig work are underdeveloped. And public-private partnerships have largely focused on job counts rather than job quality.

This is in sharp contrast to global port cities like Melbourne or Barcelona, which have successfully balanced event-based economies with broader investments in creative, tech, and R&D industries. In these cities, young workers can move fluidly between sectors and build careers with upward mobility—even if they start in tourism or hospitality. Busan, by contrast, offers few such bridges.

The consequences are visible in the city’s population data. Between 2019 and 2024, Busan lost nearly 150,000 residents—many of them in their 20s and 30s. The city’s share of economically active young people has dropped below that of nearby Incheon for the first time. While policy makers continue to tout job creation figures, the youth vote is being cast with plane tickets and civil service applications.

There are potential pathways forward. Experts point to the need for a paradigm shift—from job subsidies to employment ecosystems. That means investing in upskilling programs that allow MICE workers to transition into digital roles, marketing, logistics, or content production. It also means fostering midsize companies and startups with professional HR systems, mentorship pathways, and promotion tracks. Most critically, it requires placing job quality—wages, benefits, skill development—at the center of workforce policy.

“Busan doesn’t have a job quantity problem,” the policy analyst said. “It has a job dignity problem. You can’t retain young people if you don’t give them a reason to build their lives here.”

In the end, the question for Busan is not how to create more jobs—but how to create jobs that people want to stay in. That will require more than subsidies, more than slogans, and more than short-term fixes. It will require a complete rethink of what kind of city Busan wants to be—and who it wants to keep.