For many S. Koreans, one job does not cut it

When 30-year-old Kim wraps up her full-time marketing job at 6 pm, her day is only half finished. Three evenings a week, often including weekends, she rushes across Seoul to tutor middle and high school students in English.

"I've been tutoring for seven years," she said. "I feel like I'll never be able to buy a house or start a family. Working one job just doesn't seem enough for the future anymore."

For 32-year-old Lee, a salesperson at a major conglomerate, nights are spent on his laptop, uploading and registering South Korean beauty products on Amazon. The work is tedious and the platform's standards demanding, often leaving him stressed. Still, he says he has little choice.

"After rent, groceries and the occasional meal out, there's barely anything left to save," he said. "This isn't about ambition. It's a necessity."

Kim and Lee are far from outliers. Side jobs, once associated with freelancers or those between jobs, have quietly become a defining feature of young adulthood in South Korea.

Financial motivations, lack of trust in the traditional office structure, and even the desire to reinvent themselves or fulfill one's personal dream are propelling the growing trend of "N-jobbers" — referring to those holding down more than one job.

Nearly half of South Korean workers now report having a side hustle, according to a recent survey by job portal Incruit, with participation highest among those in their 20s (55.2 percent) and 30s (57 percent).

Survival strategies

The numbers back the growing reliance on additional income. According to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics of South Korea, the number of workers with secondary employment, including both regular and temporary employees, reached 404,409 as of October 2025.

A survey of 728 adults conducted in December by short-term job search platform Newworker also showed that 49.5 percent of respondents were engaged in some form of side work, nearly matching the 50.5 percent who said they were not. Among full-time office workers specifically, 48.4 percent reported having additional work beyond their main job.

Experts say the numbers likely underestimate the real scale, as many workers are hesitant to disclose secondary income sources to employers.

Side jobs range from one-off paid appearances as wedding guests and private academic coaching to smartphone-based earnings, where an individual can earn a small amount of money by watching ads.

Experts point to a disconnect between official inflation and lived reality. While consumer prices rose 2.1 percent last year -the lowest in five years — workers say daily expenses feel far higher.

Kim Sung-hee, director of the Institute for Industrial and Labor Policy, explained that growing expenses and stagnating income are driving even stable salaried employees into supplemental work.

"The pace of wage growth is not keeping up with the rise in living costs," he said. "So more workers are adopting the 'main job plus side job' model as their default," he added, predicting that the practice could lead to a long-term transformation in the labor landscape.

"At the same time, there has been a persistent increase in precarious employment. Society must rethink whether workers are being compensated fairly for their labor," Kim said.

THE KOREA HERALD, SOUTH KOREA