"Employment Rate of Married Women Drops Sharply After Marriage... Takes 21 Years to Recover"

Korea Economic Research Institute Analysis Using 2009-2019 Korean Labor Panel Data
"Childbirth Burden on Women... Employment Retention Rate Decreases by 29.8 Percentage Points with One Child"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] An analysis revealed that it takes 21 years for married women to recover their employment rate at the time of marriage. Unlike men, whose employment rates are not significantly affected by marital status, women’s employment rates drop by nearly 30 percentage points up to the fifth year after marriage and then recover slowly.

On the 13th, the Korea Economic Research Institute under the Federation of Korean Industries analyzed changes in women’s employment rates using data from the Korean Labor Panel from 2009 to 2019 and announced these findings in the report titled “Analysis and Implications of Changes in Economic Activity of Married Women.”

Women’s Employment Rate Drops Sharply from 68.1% at Marriage to 40.5% in the 5th Year of Marriage

Source=Korea Economic Research Institute

The analysis showed that for married women, the employment rate was about 68.1% at the time of marriage, decreased to approximately 56.2% in the first year of marriage, and reached a low of about 40.5% in the fifth year of marriage, after which the employment rate gradually increased from the sixth year onward. It was analyzed that it takes about 21 years after marriage for married women to recover their employment rate at the time of marriage.

The employment rate of married women aged 25 to 64 with spouses showed a steady increase, rising from 48.8% in 2009 to 57.6% in 2019, but the employment rate gap between unmarried and married women still reached about 14.0 percentage points. For men, as of 2019, the employment rate of married men (with spouses) was 92.3%, more than 20 percentage points higher than the 69.7% employment rate of unmarried men.

The employment rate gap between unmarried and married women was found to be larger among those with college education or higher. As of 2019, the employment rate gap between unmarried and married women with a high school diploma or less was only about 3.0 percentage points, but the gap was 15.9 percentage points among highly educated women.

Working Women Find It Difficult to Maintain Jobs After Childbirth... Men’s Employment Probability Increases with Children

The Korea Economic Research Institute analyzed factors affecting the employment retention rate of married women after marriage using the Korean Labor Panel and found that childbirth was the most challenging factor for economic activity participation.

Assuming other factors remain constant, working women who were employed at the time of marriage showed a 29.8 percentage point decrease in employment retention rate if they had one child. The employment retention rate decreased by 30.2 percentage points for two children and 24.0 percentage points for three children, and especially for women with four children, the employment retention rate dropped by as much as 38.4 percentage points, according to the analysis.

Source=Korea Economic Research Institute

For women who were not employed at the time of marriage, childbirth was also a major factor reducing the probability of entering the labor market. The probability of employment decreased by 7.2 percentage points with one child, and by 17.6 and 16.5 percentage points with two and three children respectively, showing that the probability of employment decreases as the number of children increases.

On the other hand, for men, having children was associated with an increase in employment probability. For men who were not employed at the time of marriage, having one child increased the probability of employment by 24.2 percentage points.

Meanwhile, working women living with their parents showed an increased employment retention rate. The analysis found that co-residence with parents increased working women’s employment retention rate by 12.6 percentage points. Additionally, women with college education or higher had an employment retention rate 5.8 percentage points higher than those without, confirming that education level also acts as a factor increasing economic activity among married women.

The Korea Economic Research Institute analyzed, “Living with parents may provide support for women in household chores or childcare, which positively affects women’s participation in economic activities and appears to increase women’s employment retention rates.”

"Flexible Work Systems and Women’s Vocational Training Needed"

Yoo Jinseong, a research fellow at the Korea Economic Research Institute who authored the report, emphasized the need to introduce and expand flexible work systems so that women do not have to stop economic activities due to childcare burdens from childbirth, and fundamentally prepare ways to balance work and family through institutional reforms in the labor market. He also added that it is necessary to build an environment where married women can re-enter employment when needed and to expand and strengthen support for vocational training or re-employment education for women.

Furthermore, Research Fellow Yoo said, “It is also necessary to explore ways to alleviate childcare burdens for working women and reduce elderly poverty rates through intergenerational co-residence and family support across generations,” adding, “In the long term, education is important to change values regarding marriage and household chores.”

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