An Analysis of Employment Mobility of Local Talent in Healthcare Disciplines

This study examined the post-graduation employment mobility of local talents in health and medical fields. Data were drawn from the Korea EducationalDevelopment Institute’s Employment Statistics Survey of Higher Education Graduates(2017-2023), focusing on employed graduates from four-year regional universities inmedicine, dentistry, Korean medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and veterinary medicine. Employment mobility was classified into five categories: regional settlement, regionalreturn, primary and secondary metropolitan outflow, and interregional outflow. Results indicated that medical graduates showed rising settlement but persistentsecondary outflow, while dental graduates had declining settlement with increasingmetropolitan outflow. Korean medicine was relatively stable though return decreased,pharmacy showed a clear rise in settlement, and nursing maintained settlementabove half with gradual increases in return. Veterinary medicine exhibited highinterregional outflow and notable volatility. These findings highlight the need forpolicies such as expanding regional talent admissions, offering incentives for localreturn, strengthening training opportunities in regional hospitals, and establishingnational guidelines for balanced healthcare workforce distribution.