Young adults look at old-people jobs as a fresh opportunity

Economy

Published: 09 Mar. 2023, 14:49 Updated: 09 Mar. 2023, 19:34

Young adults look at old-people jobs as a fresh opportunity

A young Fresh Manager, the job title for sellers of the Korean Yakurt products, arranges dairy goods on her mobile refrigerated cart [HY]

As a woman 28 years young, Kang, who sells Yakult products at offices and apartment complexes in Korea, is something of an exception in the business that largely has been dominated by ajumma (middle-aged women).

Sellers of the Korean sweet probiotic drinks are known for their friendly motherly presence as they scoot around in beige uniforms on a refrigerated motorized cart full of dairy goods, and have long been referred to as Yakult ajumma.

“Customers would first call me ‘Yakult ajumma’ and then be surprised that I’m not an ajumma after seeing my face,” Kang said.

Like Kang, today’s Yakult ajumma are no longer just middle-aged women in their 40s and 50s but also eonni — the Korean word used affectionately to refer to females a few years older than oneself.

There were only 22 people in their 20s and 30s who joined the Fresh Managers team in 2017, but that number reached around 800, or 8 percent of the total, as of December 2022, according to the company, hy, formerly known as Korea Yakult. Fresh Managers is the name hy gave to the team of Yakult sellers.

The increasing number of young people seeking jobs that have been long regarded as old people jobs can be interpreted as the pragmatism of the millennials and Gen Z, who often prefer to work according to their own will rather than being tied to their office.

“Young employees in their 20s and 30s are often very reluctant to be entangled in work,” a spokesperson for hy said. “But Fresh Managers are allowed to fluctuate the times they begin and end their work day and generate income, which makes the job more appealing to the MZ generation.”

Kang, a would-be singer, works four hours a day starting from 6 a.m. and practices singing after finishing delivering Yakult products to her clients in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

“I like that I’m able to choose my start and end times as I want,” Kang said.

Hong Seo-young, 35, who has been a Fresh Manager since 2020 after quitting her job as a restaurant owner, echoed the sentiment: “It's good that I can have another part-time job or enjoy leisure time after working only four to five hours a day.”

The yogurt ladies are also evolving in terms of their equipment and job title.

The company in 2014 introduced mobile refrigerated electric carts that sellers can ride around on, an upgrade from the small handbag-like ice boxes that had been used since the 1970s. From 2019, hy held campaigns to call its female salespersons “Fresh Managers” instead of Yakult ajumma. It also added a fresh sky blue color to its iconic beige uniform.

Businesses that are growing younger are not limited to door-to-door sales.

According to an analysis by convenience store brand CU, 16.2 percent of the managers for its new branches were in their 20s in 2022, up from 3.7 percent in 2018, 7.4 percent in 2020, and 10.3 percent in 2021. The percentage of those in their 30s accounted for 16.6 percent in 2022.

GS25, another convenience store brand, is also seeing more and more young store managers — with managers in their 20s growing from 11.6 percent in 2019 to 14.2 percent in 2022. Managers in their 30s took up a larger portion, at 25.1 percent, than those in their 50s, at 22.2 percent.

Song Yoo-seok, 27, the manager of CU's Junghwa Station branch in eastern Seoul, arranges products on to the stalls on March 7. [KANG JEONG-HYEON]

Song Yoo-seok, 27, who runs a CU convenience store in eastern Seoul's Jungnang District, previously worked as an office worker for six months but later quit.

“I decided to run a convenience store while searching for a job I can do even when I get older,” the young manager said.

Song works 15 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., but still says the job is enjoyable as he can “earn as much as he works.”

People in their 20s and 30s these days can also be more frequently seen out on the streets selling some of Korean’s favorite wintertime snacks such as bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastries commonly stuffed with red bean paste or choux cream), egg bread and hotteok (honey and nut-filled pancakes).

Statistics Korea data showed the number of people in their 30s who work at cellphone service providers or street vendors reached 133,000 in the first half of last year, a record high since 2013.

Companies have an overall positive view on the increase of young workers.

“The MZ generation has a great interest in new trends and is active in online marketing activities through their social media accounts,” an industry official said.

Some industry observers believe such an increase is being triggered by worsening job market conditions from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Korea's employment rate for 2022 was 28.08 million, an increase of 816,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. But people in their 60s accounted for 55 percent of the on-year gains in jobs, at 452,000.

“It seems that the younger generation is looking for ways to break through, like by starting a low-cost business, as the economy gets tough and large conglomerates are cutting back on hiring,” said Hwang Yong-sik, a professor of business administration at Sejong University. “They are approaching in a more sophisticated and strategic way than older generations.”

BY BAEK IL-HYUN, SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]