As the concentration of non-capital-region youth in the Seoul Metropolitan Area accelerates, Gwangju Metropolitan City has also experienced a growing net outflow of young people. Although industrial complexes remain core production bases for regional ...
As the concentration of non-capital-region youth in the Seoul Metropolitan Area accelerates, Gwangju Metropolitan City has also experienced a growing net outflow of young people. Although industrial complexes remain core production bases for regional economies, they have not sufficiently reflected the expectations of younger generations, resulting in rapid outmigration of young workers and accelerated workforce aging. In response, the government has promoted initiatives to strengthen the innovation environment of industrial complexes as a strategy to mitigate these challenges and enhance both youth inflows and long-term settlement. In this study, the innovation environment of an industrial complex refers to an integrated ecosystem in which R&D capacity, university–industry–research networks, digital transformation infrastructure, safety systems, residential and living amenities, and governance mechanisms collectively support the creation, diffusion, and commercialization of knowledge and technology within and around the complex.
This study empirically examines how young people’s perceptions of the industrial complex environment affect their employment intention toward industrial complexes and their satisfaction as young workers in industrial complexes. The case area is the Gwangju High-Tech National Industrial Complex, and a survey was conducted with young people aged 19 to 39. The analysis distinguishes between unemployed youth (employment intention) and employed youth working in the industrial complex (youth satisfaction) and estimates separate regression models for each group. Key explanatory variables include perceptions of the working environment, residential environment, and innovation environment of the industrial complex, as well as individual employment preferences. In addition, on-site experience in an industrial complex, whether one’s job is related to one’s major, and expected starting salary were included as control variables. To examine moderating effects associated with career and employment characteristics, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted by adding interaction terms.
The findings can be summarized as follows. First, a positive perception of the internal innovation environment of the industrial complex emerged as a common and critical factor that increases both employment intention among unemployed youth and satisfaction among employed youth. By contrast, the effects of the working-environment factors were relatively limited for both groups. Second, the effect of the residential environment differed by employment status. Among unemployed youth, more favorable evaluations of the residential environment were associated with lower employment intention toward industrial complexes, whereas among employed youth, improvements in the residential environment were associated with higher overall satisfaction. Third, for employed youth, alignment between one’s major and job was found to increase satisfaction, suggesting that settlement depends not only on job availability but also on the experience of “doing work that fits.” Fourth, results from models including interaction terms indicate that, apart from a limited set of relationships, moderating effects were generally weak.
Finally, industrial complex policies should distinguish between the goals of youth attraction and youth retention. At the attraction stage, it is important to strengthen systems for providing recruitment and labor-market information so that innovation-related features of industrial complexes are clearly recognized during job search, while simultaneously implementing policy packages that reduce access costs such as commuting and housing burdens. At the retention stage, policies should not only improve residential and living conditions for young workers but also ensure that innovation-related initiatives are experienced and perceived on the ground within firms. In addition, job design should be refined so that major-related knowledge can be translated into meaningful work performance and growth experiences.
Keywords: perceived industrial-complex environment, employment intention in industrial complexes, youth satisfaction in industrial complexes, industrial-complex innovation environment, field experience in industrial complexes, MZ generation young people