Employment rate of recent college graduates up slightly

By Oh Seok-min
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- The average employment rate for new college graduates has risen slightly in the past year with those from two-year vocational colleges or from universities with medical majors showing a higher success rate, the education ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry conducted a survey of 559,000 people who finished school in August last year and in February this year and found that about 58.6 percent had landed a job at home or abroad.
This year's figure was higher than last year's 55 percent, though the ministry could not immediately be reached for comment on what triggered the increase.
The number excludes foreign students and those not seeking employment, joining the army for the country's mandatory military service and advancing into graduate school. The results are partly based on tallies of new hires enrolled in company health insurance plans, the ministry said.
The rate for graduates of the nation's 26 vocational colleges was the highest with 85.5 percent while the average employment rate among two-year college graduates was 60.7 percent, about 6.2 percentage point ahead of those with a four-year university diploma.
National and other public universities also showed a slight advantage over private schools, while male graduates were more successful than their female counterparts, the data showed.
Of medical schools graduates, 92.1 percent were employed, with those from schools of dentistry, oriental medicine and pharmacy also enjoying high employment rates of 86.9 percent, 77.4 percent and 74.1 percent, respectively.
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