Precarious Work & Social Policy Research Lab

This study examines South Korea’s youth labour market segmentation and social investment (SI) policy preferences. Using latent class analysis of data from the 19th Supplementary Survey of the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study, we identify four distinct categories of youth labour market experience, challenging conventional binary perspectives on labour market dualisation. Our findings reveal a striking uniformity in policy preferences: across all segments of the youth labour market—from stable, high-skilled positions to precarious, low-wage jobs—there is a consistent preference for ‘flow’ policies that enhance job mobility and employment quality. This preference pattern is analyzed within South Korea’s transition from a developmental to a neoliberal state. Despite the erosion of traditional employment security and rising non-standard employment, youth consistently favor policies that facilitate labour market transitions over human capital investment (‘stock’) or income security (‘buffer’) measures. This suggests a persistent influence of developmental legacy on youth aspirations, as they seek new forms of economic security within an increasingly flexible labour market structure. The study contributes to theoretical understanding of post-developmental labour market and SI preferences in liberalizing economies. It demonstrates how youth navigate between traditional developmental state aspirations and contemporary neoliberal realities, with implications for social policy design in transitional political economies.