• Economic Analysis
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 2019

This study examines the labor market performance of graduates who had student loans. Compared to earlier studies, we extended analyses to all jobs that were experienced for more than 18 months after graduation. First, we found that students who had student loans earned 2.81% less at their first job compared to their counterparts without student loans. Second, the wage gap decreased over time, a reduction of 0.66%p due to labor market turnovers. Third, when we compared cumulated labor income, however, the amount for borrowers were continuously higher. This is because the job searching period of a borrower was shorter, despite relatively lower wages at the first job, and borrowers also made more frequent job turnovers, accompanying relatively more wage increases. These results suggest that the negative effects of college loans on earnings, reported in previous studies, may have exaggerated the negative impact to some extent of having loans. However, when we look at the quality of jobs beyond simply wages, the proportion of borrowers working at large companies as regular workers was consistently low. Given that job conditions at the earlier stages of one's career may lead to gaps over time, our findings call for more systematic investigations into the effects that student loans have on long-term labor performance.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.5-33
• /
• 2018

A self-sufficiency service has worked as a typical workfare policy combined with public assistance in Korea since 2000. Despite of its long history, three core pillars in administrating the self-sufficiency service, policy, research, and practice, have respectively understood the meaning of self-sufficiency in terms of their own interests. As a result, the self-sufficiency service has recently faced with its own identity issues by showing failures to its environmental changes. The current situation makes it necessary to reconceptualize the definition of self-sufficiency by exploring its in-depth understanding perceived by service providers. Specifically, we analyzed practical reflections on 35 service providers' experiences which were collected via focus group interviews for two hours. The study findings presented that service providers had two antithetical approaches towards self-sufficiency. While a dominant approach to self-sufficiency has been concentrated on improving clients' economic outcomes such as employment, job retention, the escape from welfare trap, and increasing earnings and assets, the other approach has been extended to empower clients and achieve their well-being and quality of life. Yet, these contrary perspectives have led to suffer from their role confusions and identity crisis between the work-ready process and the employment-oriented outcomes. Specifically, they described self-sufficiency in terms of psychological, social, and integrated aspects. The psychological aspect included a process of developing inner strengths, intensifying job motivation, and coping with barriers of employment. The social aspect meant a path toward social integration through recovering human relationships. The integrated aspect covered more comprehensive support for their recovery of daily life and autonomy to make a decision for their own life. In conclusion, the study findings suggest that self-sufficiency should be more extensively considered as a stepwise process towards work-ready preparations beyond ultimate economic outcomes. Such an extended concept of self-sufficiency could contribute to restructuring the whole practice of self-sufficiency including organizational and program changes in the fields.