Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training published a report on 17th
South Korea, China, and Japan have all identified legislators as the profession with the highest social status. In particular, South Korea has the strongest perception of job prestige compared to other countries.
The Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) released the report on the International Comparison Study on Job Consciousness and Job Ethics on the 17th, based on a survey conducted last July and August on 1,500 employed individuals aged 18-64 in five countries. It turns out that South Korea ranked legislators as the job with the highest social status.
Respondents were asked to rate the “social status in our society” of 15 representative jobs spanning manufacturing, service, office management, and professional sectors, using a 5-point scale ranging from very low (1 point) to very high (5 points).
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The 15 jobs are legislators, pharmacists, middle and high school teachers, small and medium-sized business executives, mechanical engineers, software developers, bank clerks, factory workers, restaurant employees, construction day laborers, social workers, firefighters, artificial intelligence experts, film directors, and digital content creators.
In South Korea, legislators took the top spot with 4.16 points, followed by pharmacists at 3.83 points. Similarly, Japan and China also ranked legislators as the top professions. In Japan, pharmacists were rated second, while in China, film directors took the second spot.
On the other hand, firefighters took the top spot in the United States and Germany. Software developers came in second place in both countries. Legislators ranked 12th in the U.S. and 10th in Germany.
South Korea, in particular, had a significant score gap among different professions.
The gap between the top-ranked legislators and the lowest-ranked construction day laborers amounted to 2.30 points, with a gap of 1.86 points. In contrast, the United States and Japan only showed a gap of 0.92 and 0.93 points, respectively, between the top and bottom positions.
The report interpreted these survey results as “The gap in job prestige is small in the U.S., Japan, and Germany, moderate in China, and notably large in Korea,” and “This suggests that the consciousness of job prestige is operating strongly in Korean society compared to other countries.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the perceived social status of their jobs, the U.S. scored the highest with 3.37 points, Germany with 3.31 points, China with 3.08 points, South Korea with 2.79 points, and Japan with 2.68 points.
The report mentioned that this reflects the low job self-esteem of Korean and Japanese workers.
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