Seoul metro area dominates medical employment with 60% of graduates working in capital region

Over the past five years, six out of 10 medical school graduates were employed at medical institutions in the Seoul metro region.

Notably, eight out of 10 graduates from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine worked in the greater Seoul area. The concentration of provincial medical school graduates in the capital area has also intensified.

Rep. Baek Seung-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, analyzed the “Employment Status of Medical Graduates Nationwide” submitted by the Ministry of Education and found that the employment rate of medical graduates in hospitals in the Seoul metro region increased by 5.7 percentage points from 55.0 percent in 2018 to 60.7 percent in 2022.

Of the 9,807 medical school graduates in the past five years, 58.4 percent, or 5,830, were employed in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province. Of these, 4,550 (46.4 percent) worked in Seoul, the most heavily concentrated even among the greater Seoul area. During the period, 2,488 medical graduates studied at Seoul-based medical schools.

By location, 90.2 percent of Seoul-based medical school graduates, or 2,678, were employed at hospitals in the Seoul metro region over the past five years, followed by 91.4 percent (74) from Incheon and 93.3 percent (223) from Gyeonggi Province.

Among schools outside the Seoul metro region, the University of Ulsan College of Medicine showed the highest employment rate in the greater Seoul area. The medical school, which uses Asan Medical Center in Seoul as its teaching hospital, saw 80.5 percent of its graduates, or 149, at hospitals in Seoul. Following it was 65.6 percent (665) from Gangwon Province and 60.1 percent (370) from South Chuncheong Province.

The employment rate of medical school graduates in the Seoul metro region has increased continuously. The employment rate of medical graduates in the Seoul metro region increased in 11 provinces and cities -- Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Gangwon Province, South Chungcheong Province, North Jeolla Province, North Gyeongsang Province, and South Gyeongsang Province.

Only Busan, Daejeon, and North Chungcheong Province saw their medical school graduates’ employment rates in the greater Seoul area decline.

The percentage of medical school graduates in North Chungcheong Province, who were employed at hospitals in the Seoul metro region decreased by 22.4 percentage points from 55.0 percent in 2018 to 32.6 percent in 2022. Over the e period, the comparable rate in Busan also fell by 14.1 percentage points from 43.1 percent to 29.0 percent and that of Daejeon dropped from 43.7 percent to 35.6 percent.

In the latter three regions, their employment shares at local hospitals were relatively higher as shown by 51.2 percent in North Chungcheong Province, 47.9 percent in Daejeon, and 46.4 percent in Busan.

The number of medical school graduates employed in the regions where they graduated was relatively low in North Gyeongsang Province, with only 17 (3.3 percent), and Ulsan with 16 (8.6 percent) in the past five years. South Gyeongsang Province, Gangwon Province, and South Chungcheong Province also showed low local employment rates, with 77 (19.6 percent), 214 (21.1 percent), and 194 (31.5 percent), respectively.

“The University of Ulsan College of Medicine was licensed as a regional medical school but most of its academic operations are conducted in Seoul, resulting in criticism as a so-called ‘expedient operation.’ In reality, 144 of its 185 graduates have been employed in Seoul over the past five years,” Rep. Baek said. “This undermines the purpose of establishing regional medical centers to expand the regional healthcare infrastructure.”

Baek called for the government to create conditions for doctors from provincial medical schools to settle down in their regions by, for instance, introducing the regional doctor system.

“The medical workforce is increasingly concentrated in the Seoul metro region but the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is pushing to expand medical students without taking measures on how to deploy, manage, and operate them,” the opposition lawmaker said. “It is urgent to review measures to strengthen the public nature of regional medical care, including introducing regional doctors, establishing public medical schools, and creating conditions for doctors from provincial universities to settle in their regions.”