▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Conglomerate chiefs push ahead with 2027 business plans through the holiday: The heads of major groups including Samsung, SK, LG, Hyundai Motor, Hanwha and HD Hyundai toured business sites at home and abroad during the Chuseok holiday to review growth businesses such as semiconductors, AI, future mobility and defense. With year-end personnel reshuffles approaching, the work of sorting growth businesses from non-growth businesses is gaining momentum, and analysts expect this to affect the scale and direction of hiring in the related fields.
■ Student loan burden concentrates among those in their 30s: The number of people in their 30s approved for deferred repayment of income-contingent student loans reached 8,475 as of 2025, up more than 15% from 7,346 a year earlier and the highest figure on record. From January to August this year, the number of employed people in their 20s averaged 3.279 million per month, down 193,000 from the same period a year earlier — the largest decline since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis.
■ LG emerges as sovereign AI partner for emerging markets: LG AI Research signed an AI cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Kazakhstan government in mid-September and is pursuing additional cooperation with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, accelerating its push into emerging-market AI. The strategy is to target demand from emerging countries that want AI in their own languages without becoming dependent on U.S. or Chinese Big Tech, using the domestically developed EXAONE model.
[News of Interest to University Students and Job Seekers]
1. Chiefs Forgo Holiday as the '2027 Business Clock' Speeds Up
Key summary: The heads of major groups including Samsung, SK, LG, Hyundai Motor, Hanwha and HD Hyundai inspected business sites at home and abroad during the Chuseok holiday as they map out next year's business plans, executive appointments and organizational changes. Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee reviewed the expansion of semiconductor and AI businesses with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in New York, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is set to reprise the "AI buddy" meeting at the same event. LG Group Chairman Kwang-mo Koo has already signed a strategic partnership with CEO Satya Nadella at Microsoft headquarters, while Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating its future mobility strategy in autonomous driving, robotics and hydrogen. With the year-end personnel season approaching, major groups are moving in earnest to sort growth businesses such as AI, semiconductors, defense and space from non-growth businesses, and analysts expect this to affect the scale and direction of hiring in the related fields.
2. Employed but Quickly Out of Work: Student Loan Deferrals Among Those in Their 30s Hit Record
Key summary: The number of people in their 30s approved for deferred repayment of income-contingent student loans reached 8,475 as of 2025, up more than 15% from 7,346 a year earlier and a record high. The number of deferrals among those in their 30s first surpassed the figure for those in their 20s (6,587) in 2024, and last year the gap with the 20s group (6,190) widened to nearly 2,300. Of the total deferred amount of 24.331 billion won last year, 15.019 billion won, or 61.7%, was attributable to those in their 30s. From January to August this year, the number of employed people in their 20s averaged 3.279 million per month, the largest decline since the IMF foreign exchange crisis, in a sign that conditions for young people entering the labor market are deteriorating across the board.
Key summary: LG AI Research signed an AI cooperation MOU with the Kazakhstan government in mid-September, launching joint development of a Kazakh-language AI model, applications in industry, energy, healthcare and logistics, and cooperation on talent development. While English (61.1%), European languages (26.3%) and Chinese (5.4%) account for most global AI training data, Arabic makes up 2.4% and Kazakh does not even register in the statistics, leaving emerging countries with urgent demand for sovereign AI. LG AI Research is also pursuing cooperation with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds with specialized models including EXAONE 4.5, released in April this year, EXAONE BI for finance and EXAONE Tabula for manufacturing. As Korean AI companies emerge as sovereign AI partners for emerging countries, analysts expect demand for personnel in AI model development and commercialization to increase.
[Reference News for University Students and Job Seekers]
Key summary: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development put Korea's economic growth forecast for this year at 3.7%, up 1.1 percentage points from June (2.6%) and 2 percentage points from March (1.7%) in the space of six months. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also raised its forecast the same day to 3.2% from 2.6%, while the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the Bank of Korea revised theirs upward to 3.2% and 3.3%, respectively. As the spread of AI drives a surge in semiconductor exports and expands capital spending at related companies, growth expectations that were initially seen as weak are rising quickly. Analysts say that continued strength in semiconductor and AI exports will sustain new hiring demand in the related industries.
5. Labor Ministry Pushes Minimum Pay Guarantee for 8 Million Special-Type and Platform Workers
Key summary: The Ministry of Employment and Labor has commissioned a study on introducing a minimum pay system for about 8 million special-type employment and platform workers, including delivery riders and parcel couriers. The plan is to address, through separate legislation, the limits of the current Minimum Wage Act, which applies to workers as defined under the Labor Standards Act and is difficult to apply to piece-rate workers. The study will survey the actual income of about 1,000 piece-rate workers and calculate hourly real pay reflecting work expenses such as fuel and communication costs for comparison with the current minimum wage. For job seekers considering platform or freelance work, the direction of future pay standards could affect how they design their roles and plan their income.
6. Retail Investors Return With Cash as KOSDAQ IPO Market Picks Up Again
Key summary: Wise Planet Company, which listed on the KOSDAQ this month, surged 285.83% from its offering price of 12,000 won, and the success of such new listings is bringing warmth back to a sluggish initial public offering (IPO) market. Skylabs (129.5% above its offering price) and Neosapience (158%) have also posted returns well above their offering prices since listing, and Wise Planet Company, Big Wave Robotics and Brills, which held retail subscriptions this month, each secured trillions of won in subscription deposits. Meanwhile, as of the 23rd, new KOSDAQ listings totaled 34 including SPAC mergers, only about half the 61 recorded in the same period last year, though the Korea Exchange has eased review standards from the second half of the year to encourage listings in the fourth quarter. Elice Group, an AI full-stack company, is working through institutional bookbuilding with a target market capitalization of up to 1 trillion won, and analysts expect more promising unlisted companies to join the fourth-quarter offering market.
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