The number of Korean employees with college degrees surpassed the 10 million mark in the second quarter, data showed Monday, indicating the country’s zeal for education.

The number of college graduates on the payroll amounted to 10.2 million in the second quarter, up 4.8 percent or 464,000 from the previous year, according to data by the state-run statistics agency.

The figures include graduates from two-year community colleges and four-year universities and those who complete graduate school degrees.

Such people accounted for 40.8 percent of the country’s total employees in the cited period, slightly down from a record high of 41.4 percent in the first quarter, according to the data. It compared with 26.4 percent tallied for the second quarter of 2002.

The number of employees with college degrees has been growing steadily on the back of the country’s strong passion for eduction.

In Korea, more than 70 percent of high school graduates go on to universities, leading to what some call “academic inflation.”

On a yearly basis, the number of such people reached 9.7 million last year, accounting for 40 percent of all workers, raising the possibility that the number will likely surpass the 10 million level this year.

Meanwhile, the number of employees with only a high-school education reached 9.74 million in the second quarter, accounting for 39 percent of the total people on payrolls, according to the data.

It marked the smallest ratio since 38.1 percent tallied in the fourth quarter of 1990, it added.

Experts said that a steady rise in job seekers with college degrees is feared to aggravate supply and demand in job markets. In June, job seekers with college degees amounted to 106,501, 6.8 times higher than the corresponding number that companies wanted to hire, according to a separate report.

Last year, the government urged state-run agencies and companies to hire high-school graduates in a bid to help vocational high school graduates find jobs. State-owned agencies and banks including Korea Development Bank as well as private companies have joined the move. (Yonhap News)