This undated file photo shows women employees at an office in Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s employment and labor indicators for women have remained low among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over the past two decades due partly to the lack of adequate government support and sufficient jobs, a report showed Monday.
According to the analysis report by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on employment and labor of women aged 15-64 in 38 OECD countries, the employment rate and labor participation rate of South Korean women came to 61.4 percent and 63.1 percent, respectively, in 2023.
The FKI said South Korea ranked 31st among OECD nations in both categories.
South Korea has remained in the lower tier in terms of female employment since 2003 while its ranking among OECD countries in women’s employment rate dropped from 27th in 2003 to 31st in 2023, according to the report.
Notably, the country’s employment rate for women with children aged under 15 stood at 56.2 percent in 2021, the lowest among the so-called 30-50 club, a group of OECD members with a population of over 50 million and a per capita income of over US$30,000.
The report said South Korea was lacking in two key areas — flexible work environments and family care support — when compared with OECD nations with women’s employment rate of above 70 percent, such as Germany, Japan and Britain.
The FKI said efforts to improve women’s economic participation should “focus on creating work environments that enable work-life balance, such as greater flexibility in working hours.”
It also stressed the need to expand the rate of high-quality part-time jobs, and strengthen the country’s overall family care support to actively encourage women’s participation in the economy.
(Yonhap)
