Enlisted soldiers attend a job fair for veterans and military personnel at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul, May 3.
Yonhap
Kim Young-joon, 30, says he increasingly bickers with his parents over minor issues, as the years go by. Despite obtaining a master’s degree, he turned down multiple job offers because he felt they didn't match his educational level, leaving him without employment since then.
“My parents say it is stressful to see me at home day and night, hurting my feelings and making me react sensitively whenever I see them,” Kim said.
“I’m afraid this situation will get worse as I get older, because it gets tougher to land a decent job and become financially self-reliable.”
Kim’s case represents more than two-thirds of the Koreans aged between 25 and 34, who either live with their parents or lack economic independence even though they live separately from their parents.
They collectively are called the “kangaroo tribe,” which presents an image of an overgrown marsupial that hasn’t left its mother’s pouch yet.
According to a Korea Employment Information Service study, 66 percent of Koreans aged between 25 and 34 belonged to this group as of 2020.
The rate hovered in the 60 percent range for years, including 62.8 percent in 2012, 66.6 percent in 2016 and 68 percent in 2018.
Of the kangaroo tribe in 2020, 73.4 percent were without college diplomas while 69.4 percent of them were from Seoul or the greater Seoul area.
The adult children increasingly did not move out to live on their own because they did not have jobs.
For instance, the unemployed individuals accounted for 47.4 percent of the entire kangaroo tribe in 2012. The rate then went up to 66 percent in 2020.
However, that does not mean all employed children were living independently from their parents.
Some 72.2 percent of those working temporary jobs, not earning sufficient wages or experiencing other unstable employment circumstances said they have not moved away from their parents.
Some other children who live with their parents even after they are well into adulthood responded that they go to graduate school or just completed mandatory military service.
Under the circumstances, an expert warned that the kangaroo tribe can “hurt not only households but also the country’s economy" more broadly speaking.
“The cost of dealing with the kangaroo tribe will grow bigger as the involved individuals get older and their parents retire, because the government in the end will need to support them and help them literally survive,” said Jeon Young-soo, a professor at Hanyang University’s Graduate School of International Studies.
Jeon suggested that parents “distance themselves from adult children concerning finance.”
“The children will need to find all possible means to survive on their own regardless of the economic challenges they face,” he said.
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