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By Park Si-soo
The increasing toughness of socio-economic competition, the cost of childbirth and child-rearing and other mundane activities for an "ordinary" life have made nearly 60 percent of adults here think of "moving to another country for a better life," a survey showed on Tuesday.
Domestic job placement website Matching Platform revealed this based on an online survey of 4,229 adults.
Those in their 30s were the most positive age group to the idea, with 66 percent of respondents interested in escaping from what they called "hellish reality." Next was those in their 40s (62.8 percent), followed by those in their 20s (56.4 percent) and those in their 50s (51.5 percent).
The 30s and 40s groups are the socio-economic backbone of the country. So their dissatisfaction with life here could mean loss of steam for Korea Inc. to move forward.
The biggest reason for departure was "lack of time to relax" (43.3 percent). Second was "to have a new experience" (43 percent), followed by "to live in a country with better welfare" (41 percent), "a sense of relative deprivation" (34.1 percent), "in pursuit of a better education environment for children" (18.6 percent) and "to start own business overseas" (17.2 percent).
North America was the favorite destination (45 percent), followed by Australia, New Zealand, Guam or Hawaii (37.4 percent), Northern Europe, such as Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (28.7 percent), Western Europe, including France, the U.K. and Germany (21.9 percent) and Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore (16.2 percent).
But with various "exit" ideas in mind, 70 percent of respondents said their ideas would end up being in their mind ― primarily because it would be difficult to find a new job overseas (48.2 percent).
