Source: Adult skills and productivity: New evidence from PIAAC 2023 | CEPR
Korea ranks 5% below the OECD average in skill levels — the very foundation of productivity — and 5% above average in labor mismatch.
In short: under-skilled and misaligned.
ChatGPT points to familiar culprits:
– Over-credentialism
– Exam obsession
– Training divorced from reality
But I didn’t need ChatGPT to tell me that. Under the GSB brand at SIAI, I tried delivering training in real skills — math over coding, thinking over cramming — and the market simply couldn’t process it. I remember only a handful of supporters amid abundant backlash.
Among OECD countries, only Japan and the UK misuse labor as badly as Korea. But at least they have skills to waste.
In Seoul, even if you create more efficiency internally, the market still punishes you — not because you’re wrong, but because others can’t recognize quality.
That’s why I sold my Korean operation. And that’s why I keep telling the Irish HQ whenever they speak of Asian ambition: don’t waste another “Gordon” energy in Seoul. Move it all to Tokyo.