Analysis of Youth Complaints: Men Concerned About "Military Service," Women About "Employment and Childcare"

ACRC Announces Results of Yearlong Analysis of Youth Complaints
Five Key Areas Identified: Military Service, Employment, Asset Formation, Housing, and Childcare

An analysis of complaints submitted by young people to the e-People Portal over the past year found that most concerns were related to military service, employment, assets, and childcare.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on the 30th that it had analyzed approximately 410,000 complaints submitted to the e-People Portal by young people aged 19 to 34 from July of last year to last month. The results showed that youth complaints were largely concentrated in five areas: military service, employment, asset formation, housing, and childbirth and childcare.

For men, the majority of complaints were related to military service, while for women, complaints about employment and childcare were relatively high. By age group, those aged 19 to 24 focused on enlistment and job preparation, those aged 25 to 29 on military service and employment, and those aged 30 to 34 on housing, childbirth, and childcare. By region, housing supply and loan-related complaints were more frequent in the Seoul metropolitan area, while employment and job opportunity-related complaints were more common outside the metropolitan area.

Monthly Trends of Youth Complaints Over the Past Year (July 2025 ~ June 2026). National Rights Commission

The average number of complaints per month was about 37,000, a 5% increase from the previous year. By gender, age, and region, the majority of complainants were male (70.1%), aged 30 to 34 (52.8%), and residents in the Seoul metropolitan area (58.2%).

Men primarily raised complaints related to military service. In particular, there were many complaints about administrative inconvenience in the process of issuing military service certificates and demands for improvements in the call-up and operation methods of reservist training.

For women, most complaints were related to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare. A majority focused on workplaces that failed to properly implement or gave disadvantages concerning legally guaranteed maternity leave, parental leave, and reduced working hours for childrearing. There were also demands to broaden the coverage of health insurance for infertility treatments.

Complaints related to asset formation were concentrated among those aged 25 to 29, who are at the beginning of their careers. Many requested improvements to the operational standards of policy finance programs supporting youth asset formation. In particular, there were concerns that the eligibility requirements for the Youth Future Savings Account, which began in June 2026, were unrealistically strict. Existing users of the Youth Leap Account also requested that the early termination conditions or the criteria for transferring to other policy products be made more practical.

Most complaints related to employment came from young people living outside the metropolitan area. There were strong calls for improvements to how vocational training programs are operated, as well as demands for more effective resolution of issues like frequent wage arrears at workplaces and proper payment of severance, aiming to better protect workers' rights.

Housing-related complaints were especially high among metropolitan residents aged 30 to 34. These mainly involved calls for more realistic housing supply and loan requirements, as well as demands for support for victims of rental fraud.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission stated that the youth policy improvement requests identified in this analysis have been provided to five relevant ministries—Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Financial Services Commission, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Ministry of Health and Welfare—to be duly reflected in future policymaking and institutional improvements.

Lee Il-yeon, Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, “Youth complaints are not just reports of inconvenience, but valuable voices reflecting the difficulties and policy needs that young people experience in their daily lives. We will strive to ensure that meaningful policy improvements are delivered, so young people can truly feel the change.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.