Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hiua25]

I have a mate who's having real problems finding a job in Busan.

He's contacted a number of recruiters and has heard nothing back.

Is there some sort of job shortage in Busan atm? Or has he just been super unlucky?

Any recruiters out there (or indeed anyone else) who can find him a job in Busan, drop me a pm and I'll pass on his details. He already has a CRB and he can start asap.

[broken76]

There are actually a lack of jobs in both Seoul and Busan. Busan was always kinda tough since there is a high demand but not that many schools (compared to Seoul and near Seoul).
The current economy is driving more teachers to come to Korea while less teachers are leaving while the number of jobs are actually shrinking because of the economy.
I'm a recruiter and when I speak to other recruiters everyone seems to have a surplus of candidates which used to be pretty rare.
Pretty much most teachers want to go to the same areas (Seoul, Busan, etc) so now the competition for jobs has picked up.

[hiua25]

Really?! That's surprising. I would have thought that the low value of the won would have made it a lot less attractive for teachers to go to Korea. And the dollar is so high, I thought that would put off Americans altogether. Plus the problems they're having with Kim Jong Il atm I thought less people would want to work in Korea, not more.

And there are just as many job ads on this site as there ever were!
Why are the recruiters still advertising on here so much if they have a surplus of candidates to vacancies?

I don't think my mate can afford to hang around back home too long. Would you advise he look for a job outside Busan then? i.e say to his recruiter, just find me anywhere

Cheers.

[cdninkorea]

If what broken76 says is true for all or most recruiters, this is quite a big change from the recent past; does anyone remember when Immigration came out with their new, stricter visa requirements? It suddenly became a lot harder for recruiters and schools to find teachers, and the recruiting fee went up accordingly.

How times change!

[D.D.]

It's always been hard to get jobs in Busan. I doubt that there is a influx of teachers right now. Busan jobs tend to be advertised in other places that are not easy to find.

[RufusW]

Well there should be public school recruitment for an August start - if you can wait that long. Otherwise, Busan isn't huge so I'm not surprised the large amount of westerners here have the jobs locked up.

[marlow]

And with the shortage so goes the job quality.

[broken76]

The low value of the won was a worry but now it's become a case of either making some money or none since getting a job back home is so difficult. Also the low value of the won has little impact when you're in Korea. Most teachers haven't really changed their spending habits here since inflation hasn't really been too much of an issue. Instead of being able to send home a thousand it's a couple a hundred less but again it's still better than nothing.
The N. Korean issue has always been there and for most people in Korea it's not an issue at all since it's mostly talk, pretty much the average Korean doesn't think that there will be a chance of war.
I don't know much about other recruiters but we've cut back on advertising in general but have seen a big increase in applicants. We do keep some advertising up but have cut back in general.

[The_Source]

I agree that Busan is becoming more competitive. When I first came to Busan a few years back, I was getting job offers on my first day of searching. Contrast my most recent job search that took over one month... a result I would have been pleased with back home, but I wasn't expecting that from Korea.

[hiua25]

Times have changed indeed.

Where else can I look for Busan jobs then?

[mj roach]

<<www.pusanweb.com>>