One in Six Married Women Experience Career Breaks... Top Reason for Quitting Work is 'Childcare'

27.5% Quit Work After Marriage and More

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] One in six married women aged 15 to 54 in South Korea has quit working, resulting in a career break. Among the reasons for quitting work, 42.5% cited 'childcare.'

According to the Status of Career-Interrupted Women (Additional Items of the Regional Employment Survey in the First Half of 2020) released by Statistics Korea on the 24th, as of April this year, there are 8.578 million married women aged 15 to 54, of whom 3.42 million are not employed. Among the non-employed women, career-interrupted women who had been working but quit their jobs totaled 1.506 million, a decrease of 11.4% compared to the previous year, accounting for 17.6% of married women.

While the number of career-interrupted women partly reflects the effects of government policies for work-family balance, the primary factor is analyzed to be the decrease in the number of married women. The number of married women aged 15 to 54 this year decreased by 266,000 compared to last year (8.844 million).

By age group, 46.1% (695,000) of career-interrupted women were in their 30s, the largest proportion. This was followed by 40s at 38.5% (580,000), 50 to 54 years at 8.9% (134,000), and 15 to 29 years at 6.4% (97,000). The top reason for quitting work was childcare (42.5%, 640,000). Other reasons for career interruption included marriage (27.5%, 414,000), pregnancy and childbirth (21.3%, 321,000), family care (4.6%, 69,000), and child education (4.1%, 62,000).

Among married women with children under 18, 25.8% experienced career interruption. The duration of career breaks was most commonly 10 to less than 20 years at 27.0% (407,000), followed by 5 to less than 10 years at 24.1% (362,000), 3 to less than 5 years at 13.7% (206,000), less than 1 year at 12.7% (191,000), 1 to less than 3 years at 11.9% (179,000), and 20 years or more at 10.7% (160,000).

The number of career-interrupted women who have given up job seeking was 12,000, an increase of 2,000 compared to one year ago. Job seekers who have given up are defined as those who want to work and have the potential to be employed but have not engaged in job-seeking activities in the past four weeks due to labor market issues, despite having job-seeking experience within the past year.

The number of career-interrupted women who have re-employed was 2.141 million, a decrease of 3.3% (73,000) compared to one year ago.