AI Divide Pronounced Among Young Workers by Educational Background... "AI Use Gap Between College and High School Graduates: 2.6-Fold"

The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) among young workers varies by educational background, with the rate among the most educated reaching up to 2.6 times that of the least educated. While AI is spreading beyond simple information searches into practical tasks such as writing documents and analyzing data, the survey found that more highly educated workers have more experience using it and perceive greater improvements in their work. As AI proficiency becomes a new job skill, concerns are growing that educational disparities could lead to an "AI divide" in the labor market.

According to a report titled "Generative AI Use Among Young Workers and Differences by Personal Characteristics," published in the Employment Trends Brief by Gong Jeongseung, a senior researcher, and Cho Changbeom, a researcher at the Korea Employment Information Service, a survey of 6,500 employed people aged 23 to 32 last year found that 21.3% had used generative AI in their current jobs. That means roughly one in five young workers uses AI as a work-support tool.

The most pronounced difference was by educational background. The rate of generative AI use among workers with at least a four-year university degree was 27.4%—about 1.5 times the rate for junior college graduates (18.7%) and about 2.6 times that for those with a high school diploma or less (10.4%). The 17.0-percentage-point gap between university graduates and those with a high school diploma or less was substantially larger than the maximum gaps by gender (4.1 percentage points) or age (6.4 percentage points).

Differences by educational background were also evident in workers' plans to use AI in the future. Among young workers who do not currently use AI, the share who said they planned to use it was highest among those with at least a university degree, at 26.3%. They were followed by junior college graduates at 20.4% and those with a high school diploma or less at 16.7%. Assessments of AI's impact on work also differed among workers who already use it. When asked to rate, on a five-point scale, how much AI helps improve the way they write documents and reports, those with at least a university degree gave an average score of 3.93, higher than the 3.70 given by those with a high school diploma or less. The same was true of AI's help with summarizing and organizing reports: those with at least a university degree gave an average score of 4.04, compared with 3.84 for those with a high school diploma or less. The differences by educational background were statistically significant for both measures.

If these disparities persist over the long term, they could lead to polarization in job skills and employment among young people. With employment conditions challenging, as the number of young workers has declined for 47 consecutive months, those adept at using AI may be better positioned to increase their productivity and adapt to new jobs. By contrast, groups with limited opportunities and experience using AI may also have fewer opportunities to develop their job skills, potentially widening existing educational disparities into broader labor market gaps. However, opportunities to use AI may vary by industry and occupation, making it difficult to explain differences in usage solely by educational level. "Since the differences in generative AI use rates by educational background are relatively large, we need to continue monitoring whether the current gap persists," said Gong Jeongseung, a senior researcher. "Because the AI-use environment may differ depending on the industries and occupations in which young people work, we also need to comprehensively examine how job characteristics affect AI use."

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