66% of Gen Z get beauty treatments to land a job

About two-thirds of young job seekers in South Korea said they had obtained beauty care to land a job, with many of them believing that physical appearance plays a key role in increasing their chances of being employed, a survey showed Monday.

Local job platform Catch revealed the results of a survey it conducted with 1,455 young job seekers belonging to Generation Z -- adults born after the mid-1990s.

According to the survey, some 66 percent of the respondents said they received care for their physical appearance to get hired, while the remaining 34 percent had not.

Most of the respondents said they had purchased new clothing and cosmetics in an effort to improve their self-presentation and outward appearance. Others said they tried to lose weight, went to a dermatology clinic for skin care or even got cosmetic surgery.

Asked if they think physical appearance should be considered an important factor when evaluating one's qualifications in job seeking, 70 percent of the respondents replied "yes."

Notably, a higher percentage of men than women believed that appearance should be assessed in hiring.

Some 40 percent of male respondents said facial features were the most important appearance factors when seeking a job, while 48 percent of female respondents said the overall image they convey was more pivotal, placing greater importance on the general impression they make.

The data also found that men invested more money in managing their appearance for hiring than women. Only 36 percent of women said they had invested more than 100,000 won ($72) in beauty care, while the figure was 42 percent for male job seekers.