Young Koreans find new ways to spend the holidays as real incomes fall

Online flea market platform Bungae Jangteo yielded 442 results when users searched for ″holiday gift sets″ on Wednesday. Some 418 of the results were uploaded this month. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Rising prices and falling incomes are giving rise to new holiday trends.

Kim Ji-yeon, a 24-year-old college student, worked part-time at a cafe in Seoul the entire Lunar New Year holiday.

She chose to work rather than visit relatives because she gets paid extra to work on the holidays, even though fewer customers visit.

"It's costly to visit my hometown or go on vacation, and even more so considering the rising prices these days," said Kim.

In a survey of 1,436 people in their twenties and thirties conducted by Albamon, an online service for part-time job seekers, 55.8 percent of respondents said they planned to work part-time over the Lunar New Year holidays.

Of those who said they planned to work, 63.8 percent said they were doing so "to earn money for living expenses."

Meanwhile, secondhand sales of unwanted holiday gifts have become a popular way to make some pocket money.

"I wanted to sell gifts I didn't need to buy things I really wanted," said one young commuter who was selling a holiday gift set of ham his company gave him on an online flea market.

When users searched for "holiday gift set" on Bungae Jangteo, an online flea market, there were 418 posts uploaded this month as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Sellers are parting with their secondhand gift sets for as low as half their original prices.

"Actual household incomes will likely fall as the sluggish economy, which hinders growth in gross incomes, overlaps with higher prices," said Kang Sung-jin, an economics professor at Korea University.

"Low-income groups such as young people must have minimized their holiday spendings because they were especially vulnerable to the rising prices."

According to Statistics Korea, the average household income was 486.9 million won ($3,950) as of the third quarter of last year, up 3.0 percent on year from 472.9 million won.

However, the average real income, which is income adjusted for inflation, was down 2.8 percent on year.

That is, the rise in prices outpaced the rise in incomes.

It was the first time that the average real household income fell on year since the second quarter of 2021.

"Korea's inflation will be 4 percent at the end of this year's first quarter, and 3 percent in the second half of the year," said Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho on Monday.

The government plans to provide relief to low-income individuals by introducing a loan program in March. An applicant can receive loans of up to 1 million won, including 500,000 won on the day of application.

BY HA NAM-HYUN [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]