A gold badge given to members of the National Assembly. /Reporter Lee Deok-hoon
A report was recently released showing that Koreans ranked being a member of the National Assembly first as an occupation with high social status. In the same survey, ‘firefighters’ ranked first in the United States and Germany. There was also an analysis that found that Korean society has a higher perception that ‘jobs are noble’ than in other countries.
According to the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training on the 17th, this information was included in the report on ‘International Comparative Research on Work Consciousness and Work Ethics’ published by the researcher earlier this month.
Last year, researchers surveyed 1,500 employed people aged 18 to 64 (total of 7,500 people) in five countries: Korea, the United States, Japan, Germany, and China. They rated the social status (occupational prestige) of 15 occupations on a 5-point scale (‘very low’). We conducted a survey asking people to rate their opinions on a scale from 1 to ‘very high’ (5 points).
The researchers defined the meaning of prestige as “the degree to which members of society recognize or evaluate the authority, importance, value, and respect that an occupation possesses.” The 15 occupations compared to military personnel include members of the National Assembly, film directors, mechanical engineering engineers, middle and high school teachers, firefighters, construction day workers, artificial intelligence (AI) experts, pharmacists, bank office workers, small and medium-sized business executives, social workers, digital content creators, and restaurants. Employees, software (SW) developers, and factory workers were presented.
Koreans ranked National Assembly members (4.16 points) first here. Next were pharmacists (3.83 points), artificial intelligence experts (3.67 points), and software developers (3.58 points). Factory workers (2.19 points), restaurant employees (2.02 points), and construction day workers (1.86 points) ranked at the bottom.
In Japan and China, members of the National Assembly ranked first. Japan was followed by pharmacists, and China was followed by film directors.
In the United States and Germany, firefighters were ranked first. Americans gave firefighters 3.93 points, and Germans gave them 3.85 points. In Korea, firefighters ranked 11th (3.08 points). The National Assembly member who ranked first in Korea, Japan, and China was 12th in the United States (3.37 points) and 10th in Germany (3.32 points).
In this survey, we also asked what level of social status they thought their job was. The United States had the highest score at 3.37 points, Germany had 3.31 points, China had 3.08 points, Korea had 2.79 points, and Japan had 2.68 points. The report said, “The level of self-evaluation of job prestige is directly related to job self-esteem, which is closely related to an individual’s job immersion and work dedication,” and “The reason that employed people in Korea and Japan evaluated their job prestige low is because of their low level of job prestige.” “It reflects professional self-esteem to a certain extent,” he said.
It was also found that the gap in perception of job prestige was the largest in Korea and the smallest in the United States. Japan and Germany showed intermediate levels. The report said, “This suggests that the perception of occupational status is relatively strong in Korean society compared to other countries,” and that “there is a need to alleviate the perception of job status as a status quo through elementary, middle, and high school and general adult education.”
2024-03-17 13:21:11
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