South Korea, among OECD countries, has the lowest employment rate of highly-competent workers, but has the second highest employment rate of low-competent workers, just below Japan.
South Korea is the only OECD country that does not explicitly show a positive relationship between competency and employment rate.
Especially for the youth and the low-educated, the employment rate shows a drastic decrease as individuals gain more competencies.
The employment problems of South Korea cannot be solved just by the enhancement of a personal competency. It is essential to improve the quality of jobs in the aspect of business demands in order for the competencies to lead to labor market outcomes.