[Koo Bon-young Column] Customized Youth Employment Measures Are Urgent

The three-game series between the Go world's 'new AI,' Shin Jin-seo 9-dan, and the AI ​​KataGo. As of last July, it was a match between the world's number one ranked player and the strongest AI in Go. It had been 10 years since Lee Se-dol 9-dan won one of five games against Google DeepMind's AI AlphaGo. Unlike Lee, who competed on equal terms, Shin 9-dan played with a two-stone handicap and secured two wins and one loss. Nevertheless, it was deeply moving—simply by demonstrating the potential for the human brain to evolve in the age of AI.
As someone who is practically a layman in Go, I encountered an interesting point of observation in this match. On a 19x19 Go board, there are as many as 10 to the power of 170 possible moves. Yet, despite KataGo finding the optimal sequence of moves at the speed of light, humans still had to place the stones on the board. This is a common phenomenon in the fields of AI and robotics. This is because AIs and robots, which can easily handle all kinds of complex calculations, are clumsy at performing simple human actions. This is known as "Moravec's paradox," named after an American roboticist.
So, does this mean that in the AI ​​era, it is more difficult to replace simple labor jobs than professional ones like doctors, lawyers, and accountants? I sensed at the 2026 CONCACAF World Cup that this hypothesis might be wrong. This was while watching the performance of Atlas, a bipedal humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, an affiliate of World Cup partner Hyundai Motor Group. It performed a 'Rabona kick' to deceive defenders by crossing its legs, and even demonstrated Son Heung-min's 'Click celebration'.
It is still uncertain which job sectors AI will displace first. What is clear, however, is that regardless of the direction, the youth will be the biggest victims. This reality holds true both domestically and internationally. Let’s look at recent reports from Bloomberg and others. Since the spread of AI, there has been a clear trend in the UK labor market where the demand for skilled workers has increased while the demand for entry-level positions has decreased. This is a result of companies replacing basic tasks typically handled by new employees with AI. The situation in Korea is no different. According to a recent survey by the Korea Employers Federation, regular open recruitment for entry-level positions dropped sharply from 39.9% in 2018 to 10.2% in 2026.
Perhaps for this reason, the number of employed youth in May of this year dropped by more than 250,000 compared to a year ago. The increase of 39,000 unemployed college graduates in the second quarter (April–June) compared to the previous year is in the same context. While the total number of employed people increased in July, the youth unemployment rate (6.8%) surged. According to the National Data Center, the 1.3 percentage point increase from the previous month was the highest in five years and six months. The dissatisfaction of the youth, going beyond general failures in state affairs, is also reflected in President Lee Jae-myung's recently plummeting approval rating. In the Realmeter poll results released on the 7th, President Lee's approval rating stood at 37.4%, the lowest since his inauguration. To make matters worse, approval ratings among those aged 18–29 (28.8%) and those in their 30s (29.8%) were both in the 20% range.
Nevertheless, the government appears insensitive to the frustration of South Korea's "rising stars." Pushing through the "Yellow Envelope Law," which focuses on protecting regular workers, is a sign of this. This is because if labor market flexibility declines, companies tend to cut back on new hires of the youth first. The same applies to the "buy the stock market at all costs" policy. The government raised the National Pension Service's target weighting for domestic stock holdings this year from the existing 14.9% to 20.8%. Bloomberg recently assessed that this "contributed to the KOSPI falling into a frenzy." It further pointed out that "(along with the crash of SK Hynix leveraged products, etc.) about 360,000 securities accounts were forcibly liquidated, and 62% of them belonged to investors aged 35 or younger."
In a sense, the future generation is currently facing a double burden in the job market due to the spread of AI and the government's policies addressing generational imbalance. For them, the Lee Jae-myung administration's three mega-projects, worth 4,700 trillion won, are nothing more than a facade. This is particularly true for the creation of the core Honam Semiconductor Cluster. While it may help solidify the ruling party's support base, it is questionable whether it will help resolve the youth unemployment crisis, not only in the immediate future but also in the mid-to-long term. This is because the AI ​​semiconductor industry does not generate significant employment for young people, and there is considerable mid-to-long-term volatility in market conditions that investors such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will face.
Therefore, it is now time to recognize the youth employment crisis as a national emergency. This means that we must show greater consideration for the 2030 generation than for the 4050 generation through measures such as continued employment incentives and extended retirement ages. For instance, vocational training and employment-linked support must be significantly expanded for unemployed youth who are effectively barred from adapting to AI within the confines of regular employment. Furthermore, government funds need to be used to support AI education at universities, rather than for token gestures such as nationwide consumption coupons.
Above all, we must not forget that regulatory innovation is the fundamental solution to resolving the youth unemployment crisis. This is because companies are the primary agents of employment. With the advent of the AI ​​era, the government should introduce tailored youth employment measures to rectify the generational imbalance in the labor market.
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