Your friendly neighborhood bungeoppang seller may look a bit younger these days

Street vendors selling popular winter snacks, stereotypically run by middle-aged or elderly folks after they retire, are these days seeing more and more younger people behind the counter. People in their 20s and 30s these days can more frequently...

Twenty-six-year-old Jun Ye-seo opened her own street vendor stall which sells bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastries commonly stuffed with red bean paste or choux cream) in Busan last month. [COURTESY OF JUN]

Street vendors selling popular winter snacks, stereotypically run by middle-aged or elderly folks after they retire, are these days seeing more and more younger people behind the counter.

People in their 20s and 30s these days can more frequently be seen out on the streets selling some of Korean’s favorite winter snacks such as bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastries commonly stuffed with red bean paste or choux cream), egg bread and hotteok (honey and nut-filled pancakes).

Jun Ye-seo, 26, started to sell the carp pastries with her friend Park Yeon-jin in Busan from last month.

The two friends earned their bachelor’s degree last year and began to apply for jobs. However, as their period of unemployment grew longer, they decided to open their own stand to earn some cash.

“The advantage of street vendors is that the initial cost to start your own business is small, like 300,000 won [$240],” said Jun. “Some people may view us strangely because they're commonly run by older people, but I don’t think there’s any age limit to earning money. That’s what my friends think as well.”

Twenty-one-year-old Park Dan-bi also recently opened her own street stall to sell bungeoppang in Jinju, South Gyeongsang.

Twenty-one-year-old Park Dan-bi recently opened her own street vendor to sell bungeoppang in Jinju, South Gyeongsang. [COURTESY OF PARK]

“Other recently-opened vendors in the area are run by people in their 20s and 30s — the rate is high especially among college undergraduates,” said Park. “Since the economy is not doing that great, I felt the pressure to start my own business by forking over a lot of money or renting a store. But by opening my own stall, I don’t feel as burdened and I can also build some experience of running my own business.”

Owners of street vendors are getting younger due to it is taking longer for many young people to find a stable job, and due to a change in the perception of such vendors. Now, among millennials and Gen Z, many even consider it trendy to start their own vendor business, as young owners share their experiences on social media such as YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Experts say this trend derives from the younger generation’s desire to be properly rewarded for their labor, and also offers a glimpse into the reality of youth unemployment.

The population of workers in their 30s who work at cellphone service providers or street vendors is rising, according to data from the Korean Statistical Information Service (Kosis).

The total population of these workers, however, recorded a new record low, 355,000, in the first half of last year, since Kosis began compiling data in 2013. However, the number of those who are in their 30s came out at a record high 133,000. Although the number of those in their 20s also fell, this can be largely contributed to the falling number of young people, which stood at around 6.23 million as of November last year, down 2.7 percent from a year ago.

The decline of these workers in their 60s is evident. The number climbed to 51,000 in the first half of 2019, but fell to 44,000 in the same period last year. Local reports say that those aged 60 and older are no longer obliged to commit to long working hours out in the cold as street vendors as more light jobs are available now, financed by the government.

This has all led to street vendors no longer being dominated by elderly owners.

Analysts also say that the data is a glimpse into the gloomy outlook of the youth employment market. Although Statistics Korea reported the number of employed people came to an all-time record high since 2000 to number up to 28.08 million in 2022, with upwards of 816,000 more people being employed last year, 452,000 of the newly employed, or 55 percent of the on-year gains, came from workers in their 60s.

Among respondents who hope to start their own business within a year, according to an economically active population survey from Statistics Korea last year, 11.3 percent, or 153,000 people, said that they ventured toward start-ups because it was difficult to get a job that they wanted. In 2018, the figure was just 5.9 percent.

“It’s a combination of the distinct characteristics of millennials and Gen Z wanting to be adequately compensated for their labor, as well as the gloomy prospects of the job market, which is leading the younger generation out to the streets, which allows them to start their own business with a small amount of capital,” said Yoon Dong-yeol, a professor of business administration at Konkuk University. “Meanwhile, workers in their 60s have moved on to jobs in which they can continue their careers, rather than relatively simple tasks just to make sales.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]