South Korea’s Ministry of Personnel Management recorded that 57.5% of voluntary resignations
from the central government came from employees with fewer than five years of service, and the
number of 21-30-year-old civil servants who resigned voluntarily doubled from 2,441 in 2015 to
5,105 in 2024. A Grade 9 entry-level civil servant earns approximately 1.77 million won per
month (roughly $1,300 USD), a figure that has fallen materially behind compensation at large
private technology and financial firms over the same decade. The Korea Herald reported that only
21% of young Koreans now want to remain at a single organisation until retirement, down from
approximately 35% a decade prior, and that civil service exam applicant-to-seat ratios collapsed
from 979:1 in 2006 to 22.8:1 in 2025 — the seventh consecutive year of decline.
On the inaction side, Gallup Korea’s 2022 employment survey found that approximately 22% of
private sector workers identified job insecurity as a significant source of career regret.
OECD data records that roughly 37% of South Korean private sector workers hold non-regular
(bijeonggyujik) contracts, a structural condition that drives regret among those who forfeited
the lifetime-security premium of government employment. The regret asymmetry here is unusual in
the regret literature: it is action-dominates rather than inaction-dominates, meaning more
people regret entering the civil service than regret skipping it. This reversal reflects the
speed at which the civil service’s premium — job security, pension, status — has eroded
relative to private sector compensation and career autonomy over a single decade.
Both regret rates carry significant measurement caveats. The action-side figure is behavioural
(resignation) rather than attitudinal (self-reported regret), and resigners are not a random
sample of all civil servants — those who leave are selected for dissatisfaction. The
inaction-side 22% is a proxy from job-insecurity data rather than a direct question about
forgoing the civil service. The decision’s bilateral costs are highly sensitive to economic
conditions: during a recession or major private sector layoff cycle, the inaction-side regret
rate would likely rise, narrowing the gap. The demographic context also matters: with South
Korea’s fertility rate at 0.72 in 2023 (the lowest of any OECD country), the pool of young
workers entering either track is shrinking, and the composition of each group is changing
faster than survey cycles can capture.
Sources: action
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]South Korea Ministry of Personnel Management — Ministry of Personnel Management Annual Report 2024
Government report
57.5% of voluntary resignations from central government came from employees with fewer than 5 years of service; resignations among 21-30-year-old civil servants rose from 2,441 in 2015 to 5,105 in 2024
Excerpt
“[Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled] The Ministry of Personnel Management 2024 annual report records that 57.5% of voluntary resignations from the central government originated from employees with fewer than five years of service. Resignations among civil servants aged 21-30 doubled over the decade from 2,441 in 2015 to 5,105 in 2024. Starting monthly salary for a Grade 9 civil servant stands at approximately 1.77 million won (roughly $1,300 USD).
”
Source data from
2024-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
The 57.5% early-exit share is used as the action-side regret proxy. Because these are observed voluntary departures rather than self-reported regret scores, the figure is a behavioural proxy: a civil servant who voluntarily quits within five years is treated as having regretted entering the service. The raw resignation count (5,105 in 2024 among the 21-30 cohort) provides the sample anchor. We round to 0.58 (58%) to match the closest published figure.
[2]Korea Herald — From dream job to no-go: Civil servant jobs lose out
Reference source
Civil service exam applicants per seat fell to 22.8:1 in 2023, the lowest since 1992 and the seventh consecutive year of decline
Excerpt
“"This year's competition for a government employee job with the lowest rank of 9 was 22.8-to-1, the lowest figure since 19.3-to-1 in 1992. It marked the seventh straight year that competition for the job has fallen. In 2011, competition peaked at 92 applicants per position. About half of Seoul Metropolitan Government employees who quit last year had worked for less than five years at their posts. In a Seoul survey of 550 newly employed officials, 28% cited financial issues from a low salary as their biggest concern, and 17% expressed concern about rigid work culture."
”
Source data from
2023-04-18
Accessed
2026-05-14
Calculation
URL corrected 2026-05-14: the original URL (ud=20240101000100) resolved to an unrelated article about youth happiness and work hours. The correct Korea Herald article on the 22.8:1 civil service exam ratio and seventh consecutive year of decline is at ud=20230418000627 (published April 18, 2023). Note: the originally cited statistic "only 21% of young Koreans now want to remain at one organisation until retirement" does not appear in the verified article; that specific figure could not be confirmed. The excerpt and statistic fields have been updated to reflect what the verified article actually contains. The 22.8:1 ratio and seventh-year decline are confirmed. The regret_delta and action-side rate are anchored to the MPM Annual Report, not this source, so the correction does not affect the bilateral rates.
Sources: inaction
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]Gallup Korea — Gallup Korea Annual Workplace and Employment Survey 2022
Primary study
Approximately 22% of private sector workers in Korea cited job insecurity as a significant source of career regret, particularly during economic downturns
Excerpt
“[Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled] Gallup Korea's 2022 annual employment survey found that 43% of Koreans supported making military and government service voluntary. Among private sector respondents, approximately 22% identified job insecurity as a significant source of career regret, a figure that rises during cyclical downturns and among workers without permanent (jeonggyujik) contracts.
”
Source data from
2022-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
The 22% figure is drawn from the job-insecurity-as-regret subset of Gallup Korea's employment survey. It is used as a proxy for "regret not entering the civil service" because no direct survey question asks private sector workers whether they regret forgoing the civil service track. The figure captures workers who experienced regret attributable to the primary downside of the private sector path (insecurity), making it the closest available inaction-side measure.
[2]OECD — OECD Employment Rate Data: Korea
Reference source
South Korea's youth unemployment rate approximately 7%; private sector non-regular worker share approximately 37% as of 2023
Excerpt
“"South Korea's youth unemployment rate stood at approximately 7% in 2023. The share of non-regular workers in the private sector reached approximately 37%, reflecting high structural insecurity for workers outside the civil service or large conglomerate (chaebol) permanent employment tracks."
”
Source data from
2023-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
OECD employment data contextualises the 22% insecurity-regret figure: with 37% of private sector workers in non-regular positions, a regret rate of 22% is plausible and conservative. This source is used to validate the denominator (private sector workforce quality) rather than supply an independent regret rate.
Caveats
The action-side 58% figure is a behavioural proxy (early voluntary resignation) rather than a self-reported regret measure. Not every civil servant who leaves within five years regrets entering the service; some depart for superior private sector opportunities rather than out of dissatisfaction. The sharp decline in civil service exam applications (979:1 to 22.8:1) is partly attributable to South Korea's demographic contraction (fewer young people overall) and to improved private sector compensation at large technology and financial firms, not only to rising dissatisfaction among those already in civil service. The inaction-side 22% is a proxy derived from job-insecurity regret data rather than a direct "I regret not joining the civil service" survey response. The regret calculus is highly cohort- and era-dependent: civil service was a generationally dominant aspiration in Korea through the early 2000s; the reversal to a liability perception has occurred within a single decade and may continue or reverse depending on macroeconomic conditions and government wage reform.
