A student attends a graduation ceremony at Seoul National University, Feb. 26. Yonhap

Three out of 10 people who obtained a Ph.D. last year were unemployed, with the ratio going up to nearly 50 percent for those aged under 30, data showed, Sunday.

The unemployment rate of Ph.D. holders is at an all-time high since Statistics Korea began collecting the data in 2014, highlighting a shortage of quality jobs and the widening impact of the job market downturn on highly educated professionals.

According to the data, 70.4 percent of the 10,442 individuals who obtained a Ph.D. last year said they secured a job. Those who failed to find employment accounted for 26.6 percent, while 3 percent were classified as economically inactive.

The unemployment rate — combining the ratio of people failing to find a job and that of economically inactive people — remained in the mid-20 percent range from 2014 (24.5 percent) to 2018 (25.9 percent) but jumped to 29.3 percent in 2019 and reached a record high of 29.6 percent in 2024.

By age group, among the 537 respondents under 30 who earned a doctorate, 47.7 percent were unemployed — the highest rate recorded in the survey's history.

Unemployment rates also varied by field of study, with arts and humanities graduates experiencing the highest rate of 40.1 percent. This was followed by natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 37.7 percent, and social sciences, journalism and information studies at 33.1 percent.

In contrast, fields such as health and welfare, education, business, administration and law showed relatively lower unemployment rates.

This trend underscores the shortage of high-quality, well-paying jobs even for highly educated individuals. Korea's job market has weakened due to increasing economic uncertainty, leading companies to prioritize hiring experienced workers over new jobseekers.

Concerns are rising that the downturn could accelerate. In 2023, a report by the Bank of Korea stated, "Artificial intelligence's ability to perform non-repetitive, cognitive analytical tasks suggests a higher risk of automation for high-skilled, high-income jobs."