(123rf)
Nearly two-thirds of young South Korean job seekers say they have had cosmetic surgery to gain employment, and many of them believe appearance plays an important role in improving their chances of getting a job, a survey showed on Monday.
Local recruitment platform Catch revealed the results of a survey it conducted among 1,455 young job seekers belonging to Generation Z, those born after the mid-1990s.
According to the survey, about 66% of respondents said they had undergone cosmetic surgery to get hired, while the remaining 34% said they had not.
Most respondents said they had bought new clothes or makeup to improve their self-expression or appearance, while others said they had tried to lose weight, visited a dermatologist for skin care or had cosmetic surgery.
When asked whether they thought appearance was an important factor in evaluating qualifications during a job hunt, 70% of respondents answered “yes.”
Notably, a higher proportion of men than women believe appearance should be considered when hiring.
Around 40% of male respondents said that facial features were the most important aspect of appearance when job hunting, while 48% of female respondents said that the overall image conveyed by the face was more important and that they placed more importance on the impression they gave.
The data also found that men spend more money than women on grooming their appearance for employment: Only 36 percent of women said they spent more than 100,000 won ($72) on beauty, compared with 42 percent of male job seekers.
