Korean slang profile
청백전
cheongbaekjeon
An exaggerated label for youth joblessness
An abbreviation exaggerating the severity of unemployment among young people.
- Expanded form
- 청년 백수 전성시대청년 백수 전성시대 (the “heyday” of unemployed youth)
- Other spellings
- —
- Earliest source found
- 2004
- Documented trend period
- Not verified
This is the earliest source we have verified, not the date the term was coined.
01Examples, with English translations
- Example by Julimmal
옛 기사는 청년 취업난을 청백전이라는 말로 표현했다.
The old article described difficulty finding work through 청백전.
02Documented history
- 2004The National Institute of Korean Language’s 2004 new-word collection lists the headword “청백전” and its definition.[1]
03Origin & word formation
The collection explicitly says it is short for 청년 백수 전성시대. Who first used it and when have not been verified.
Evidence for the origin explanationHigh
The headword, definition, and source-language spelling in the 2004 collection were compared. The original older articles re-quoted there were not directly opened, so their dates were not used for firstSeen. The first coinage and spread remain unverified. This is not an unemployment-rate statistic and should not be used to judge jobseekers’ abilities or willingness to work.
04Sources
Original titles and links are preserved. An English translation does not replace the original source.
- 2004년 신어 (국립국어원)Published 2004Original source checked Nov 14, 2026