One in Three Women Reentering Workforce After Career Break Say "No Prospects... Will Quit Within a Year"

Seoul City and Seoul Women's Capacity Development Institute Announce Study on Career-Interrupted Women Aged 30-54
Average Career Interruption Duration Before Reemployment: 4.2 Years
More Than Half Not Recognized for Past Job Experience

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Although women who experienced career breaks succeeded in reemployment, one in three (30.5%) answered that they would quit their job within a year.

On the 31st, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Women's Ability Development Institute revealed this in a study conducted on 1,015 employed women aged 30 to 54 living in Seoul who had experienced career breaks.

Among the survey participants, 55.7% (565) were married, and 44.3% (450) were unmarried. The highest level of education was a 4-year university degree at 53.9% (677), followed by junior college graduates and graduate school graduates.

The most common reason for quitting the reemployed company was "no prospects for the workplace or job" at 16%. This was followed by "poor working conditions or environment (15.7%)", "job change (11.2%)", "contract expiration (8.3%)", and "marriage, pregnancy, childbirth (7.7%)".

According to the report, Seoul women with career breaks cited "work gaps due to career breaks (16.1%)" as the most difficult challenge when job hunting for reemployment. This was followed by "income or pay not matching expectations (14.5%)", "age discrimination (12.9%)", and "mismatch of required qualifications such as education or certificates (10.9%)".

The average career break period from the previous main job to the start of the current job was 4.2 years. Less than 2 years was the most common, followed by 2 to less than 5 years at 22.9%, 5 to less than 10 years at 14.7%, and 10 years or more at 14.1%.

When asked whether their current job recognized their past work experience, a higher percentage (51.9%) answered no.

The policy that Seoul citizens most want the city to promote to activate women's economic activities is the "ban on age discrimination (16.6%)" policy. Including this, the proportion of those hoping for policies to improve discrimination such as "realistic wages for care labor" and "part-time jobs with guaranteed labor rights" reached 59.5%.

Cho Young-mi, director of the Seoul Women's Ability Development Institute, said, "This year, we plan to continue developing professional training programs in high value-added industrial fields while conducting basic employment education for female job seekers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.