Remote Work Quadruples Due to COVID-19... Employment Indicators Worsen for Married Women

Both Male and Female Wage Workers' Telecommuting Rates Soar in One Year
Flexible Work System Usage Doubles Over Past Four Years
Employment Rate of Married Women with Minor Children Turns to Decline Last Year

Utilization Rates of Flexible Work Arrangements by Type for Wage Workers in 2020 (Source: Korean Women's Development Institute)

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The proportion of workers working from home has increased more than fourfold in one year due to COVID-19. At the same time, the number of employed women with minor children and employment rate indicators have also deteriorated.

On the 20th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family held the '5th Employment Status Analysis and Policy Task Discovery Expert Meeting' with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korean Women's Development Institute. According to Kim Nanju, a senior researcher at the Korean Women's Development Institute, who analyzed the '2017-2020 Economic Activity Population Survey Supplementary Survey by Work Type,' the proportion of wage workers using telecommuting exceeded 15% in 2020 from less than 6% in 2019 for both men and women.

Last year, among wage workers using flexible work arrangements, 15.1% of men and 21.1% of women worked from home. In 2019, these figures were only 3.4% and 5.8%, respectively.

2017-2020 Wage Workers Flexible Work System Utilization Rate (Source: Korean Women's Development Institute)

The overall utilization rate of flexible work arrangements, including telecommuting, staggered working hours, selective working hours, and flexible working hours, also more than doubled over the past four years. For women, it increased from 4.9% in 2017 to 12.0% in 2020, and for men, from 5.5% to 15.9%.

By marital status, the utilization rate of flexible work arrangements was higher for married women and unmarried men. The proportion of married women using flexible work arrangements was 14.4%, while unmarried men were at 16.9%. This is interpreted as married women having a higher utilization rate due to childcare burdens.

Employment indicators for married women with minor children worsened due to care gaps caused by COVID-19. The employment rate of married women with children under 18 rose for three years from 2017 but fell by 1.5 percentage points to 55.5% in 2020 compared to the previous year. The number of employed persons decreased by 156,000 to 2.672 million, and the economically inactive population increased by 15,000.

In particular, the employment rate by the age of the youngest child was 40.7% for those aged 2 or younger and 50.0% for those aged 3 to 4. These figures decreased by 0.8 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous year. This is attributed to increased childcare burdens as daycare centers and similar facilities were closed due to COVID-19.

Professor Kwon Soonwon of the Department of Business Administration at Sookmyung Women's University said, "If the use of parental leave is changed from monthly to daily, more flexible use will be possible. Policy efforts such as promoting remote and non-face-to-face work, improving long working hour culture, and preparing customized human resource development strategies by age cycle are necessary."

There was also a significant gap in the utilization of flexible work arrangements by industry sector. For men, manufacturing was only 15.5%, but information and communication (38.3%), electricity, gas, steam, and water supply (35.7%), and professional, scientific, and technical services (29.1%) showed high utilization. For women, workers in electricity, gas, steam, and water supply (39.7%) and information and communication (30.6%) had high utilization rates of flexible work arrangements.

Senior Researcher Jeong Hyeongok of the Gyeonggi Women's Family Foundation said, "Flexible work arrangements are not a system 'for women responsible for caregiving' but for the work-life balance of all workers." She added, "Considering that the employment rate of married women decreases as the age of their children gets younger, it is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of the parental leave system and to consider policies for maintaining women's employment after parental leave."

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