| kwwa |
2002-10-28 14:55:57, 조회 : 346 |
Women's Unemployment Structure and Policies / by Taehong Kim and Yookyoung Moon
/ KWDI Research Reports /Women's Studies Forum, Vol.16/December 2000
Taehong Kim, Senior Fellow,
Yookyoung Moon, Fellow
Introduction
This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of unemployed women and
the women's unemployment structure in Korea and thereby develop efficient
policies to deal with women's unemployment problems.
In 1998, when massive unemployment was experienced, a considerable
number of unemployed women gave up looking for new jobs and remain
discouraged workers. Discouraged workers, who search for employment for
some time without success and stop looking eventually until economic
conditions improve, were not included in the official estimates of the
unemployment rate. Generally women are more likely to fall into this
category rather than men of prime working age. As a result, there is a
larger disparity between the official unemployment rate and the jobless rate
for women than for men. Moreover the unemployment structure of women
differs significantly from that of men because unemployed women engaged
in different sectors and jobs from men. Because of such sex differentials, we
cannot understand women's unemployment problems through a simple
distinction of gender in unemployment data. Rather, calls for analysis of the
unemployment structure, the unemployed group characteristics, and the
demand for unemployment policies by gender. In other word, women's
unemployment problems should be approached with a gender perspective.
Moreover, when analyzing the women's unemployment problem, women must
not be viewed just as secondary earners. In order for unemployment policies
to be effective in solving women's unemployment in the short-term
perspective and to bring about an improvement in the women's employment
structure in the mid/long-term perspective, the women's unemployment
structure and characteristics of unemployed women will have to be reflected
in such policies. In this regard, this study aims to analyze the
unemployment structure with a gender perspective and to provide a remedy
for women's unemployment based on such an analysis by integrating the
gender perspective into the unemployment policy, so as to ensure the
efficiency of the policy.
The Present Status and Structure of Women's Unemployment
The female labor force participation and the women's employment structure
has changed rapidly after the IMF bailout. That is, women's participation
rate had continuously increased with industrialization, reaching 47.0% in
1990, and peaking at 49.5% in 1997. However, the labor participation rate of
women in 1998 dropped 2.5 % points to 47.0%, which is the same level as
1990.
Moreover, the curve of women's economic activity participation rate by age
shows that women's participation dropped sharply in all ages compared to
1997 (the yearly average). The drop was especially sharp for women aged
between 20 and 24 (-5.4%), and between 40 and 44 (-3.7%). Such a
rapid decline for women in their early 20s is attributed to the economic
crisis, which has precipitated difficulties faced by university graduates
searching for a job and restructuring activities resulting in unmarried women
being laid off. Women aged between 30 and 34, who are involved with child
birth and child care, also showed a big drop (-3.6%). Consequently, due to
the declines in the employment rates of the age groups that mark the two high
points of an M curve, the overall women's economic activity participation has
declined.
The 30-34 age group, marking the valley of the M curve, also showed a
sharp drop in economic participation, which means that more women are
leaving their jobs upon marriage or child birth. Such changes will only
decrease the number of women getting employed, and turn the women's
employment structure into a low-income low-status structure. Women aged
50 and above also show a decrease of 3 percentage point compared to their
economic participation in the previous year.
According to men and women's job loss pattern after the end of 1997, as
of December 1998, the total number of employed men and women stood at
19.5 million, a decrease of 1.2 million (-5.6%) compared to the same period
in the previous year. Breaking this down by gender, we can see that while
575,000 men lost their jobs (-4.7%), the figure was 586,000 (-7.0%) for
women. This shows that the impact of an economic crisis was greater on
women than on men, with women experiencing relatively more damage. A
review of the monthly job loss by gender, again, shows women are far
more damaged than men by the economic downfall. However, the difference
of job loss between men and women is narrowing, with -1.5% for men and
-6.2% for women in January 1998, -5.7% for men and -8.3% for women in
August, and -4.6% for men and -6.7% for women in December. Such a
phenomenon implies that while the early impact of the economic crisis was
concentrated on women, they are filtering out to men with the passing of
time.
[Table 1] Monthly Employment Trends for 1998
Unit: %
+-------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Increasing rate in comparison to same month of last year (1998) |
| +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. |
+-------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Total | -3.4 -3.7 -4.1 -5.1 -5.3 -5.6 -6.5 -6.8 -5.9 -5.5 -6.3 -5.6 |
|Male | -1.5 -2.1 -2.7 -3.8 -4.2 -4.5 -5.3 -5.7 -5.0 -4.6 -5.3 -4.7 |
|Female | -6.2 -5.9 -6.0 -7.1 -6.8 -7.1 -8.2 -8.3 -7.2 -6.7 -7.8 -7.0 |
+-------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Source: NSO (1998), Employment Trends Research.
In 1963, when industrialization was just beginning, the unemployment rate
was a staggering 8.1%, with 667,000 unemployed. This high unemployment
rate dropped down to nearly 4% in the 1970s due to rapid economic growth.
However, the nation recorded the first negative growth in 1980, and the
unemployment rate soared at one time up to 5.2%. But this figure soon
dropped from 1981 and fell to 2% in 1990. The 2% unemployment rate was
maintained until 1997; 2.0% in 1995, 2.0% in 1996, and 2.6% in 1997 (Table
2).
However, with the onset of the economic crisis in late 1997, the nation's
economy suffered serious downfall, and a number of people lost jobs so the
unemployment rate skyrocketed. The unemployment rate which stood at
1.8% (161,000 unemployed) as of October 1997, right before the government
requested a bailout loan from IMF, rose to 2.3% (207,000) in November,
2.8% (238,000) in December, 4.5% (934,000) in January 1998, and 7% (1.5
million) in June 1998.(Table 2). A similar increase in the number of
unemployed and unemployment rate are expected to continue, albeit slowed
down, well into 1999.
By gender, changes in the number of unemployed and the unemployment
rate after 1969 were similar to each other. However, women's unemployment
rate, having peaked at 7.1% in 1963, dropped sharply and was maintained at
2% after 1970. In contrast, men's unemployment rate was maintained at a
rather high 5% up to the mid 1980s. (Table 2) After 1995, men and women
both maintained a low unemployment rate of 1∼2%. However, as mentioned
above, the figure rose sharply with the onset of the financial crisis. As a
result, as of December 1998, the number of unemployed men exceeded 1
million (their unemployment rate standing around 8%), and the number of
unemployed women stood at 500,000 (near 6%). Women's proportion in the
total number of unemployed peaked at 30.3% in 1963, and then dropped to
20% and was maintained at that level until the 1980s. In early 1990, the
figure rose to 30% again, and then up to 36.7% in 1997, and was maintained
at 30∼35% after the government received aid from the IMF. The women's
proportion of the total unemployment rate is lower than women's proportion
of the total employment rate, which is 41.0% (1997). However, such a figure
does not imply that fewer women are laid off than men. Considering the
fact that the job loss of women is far greater than that of men, such a
figure implies that more women are becoming economic non-participants.
[Table 2] Yearly Trends of Men and Women's Unemployment Rate and
Number of Unemployed
Unit: Thousand Persons, %
+----+------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------+------+
| | Total | Male | Female | %F |
| +-----------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------+
| |Number of | Unemployed | Number of | Unemployed | Number of | Unemployed | |
| |Unemployed | Rate | Unemployed | Rate | Unemployed | Rate | |
+----+-----------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------|
|1963| 667 | 8.1 | 465 | 8.6 | 202 | 7.1 | 30.3 |
|1970| 445 | 4.4 | 343 | 5.3 | 102 | 2.8 | 22.9 |
|1980| 748 | 5.2 | 558 | 6.2 | 190 | 3.5 | 25.4 |
|1990| 454 | 2.4 | 321 | 2.9 | 133 | 1.8 | 29.3 |
|1995| 419 | 2.0 | 280 | 2.3 | 139 | 1.7 | 33.2 |
|1997| 556 | 2.6 | 352 | 2.8 | 204 | 2.3 | 36.7 |
|1998| 1,998 | 6.8 | 986 | 7.7 | 477 | 5.6 | 32.6 |
+----+-----------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------+
Source: NSO (1995), Changes in Employment for the Past 30 Years,
NSO (1999), Annual Report on the Economically Active Population Survey.
The official unemployment rate is one of the important economic indexes.
The government refers to the official unemployment rate to make
adjustments with regard to the government expenditure, education and
training, and social welfare aid. The unemployment rate is also an important
factor to consider in establishing the nation's financial policies. As for the
unemployed, whether or not their unemployment allowance will be extended,
or whether or not they have a good chance of getting a job depend largely,
on the unemployment rate.
Unemployment, in terms of statistical purposes, is defined as those aged
15 and above who have never worked for income, have the desire and
ability to work, and have actually searched for jobs, during the reference
period survey week. However, the official unemployment rate is not a
sufficient representation of the actual status of unemployment. One reason
for this is that the official unemployment rate does not include discouraged
workers, that is, those who intend to work but feel they cannot find a job,
or those who have given up looking for a job because they feel they do not
have the capability required. In other words, the official unemployment rate
does not account for the hidden unemployed. As a result, some problems, in
particular with regard to women who are in large discouraged workers,
arise. First, the number of unemployed women and the women's
unemployment rate are presumably underestimated. Second, the
unemployment policy focuses on eliminating legitimate barriers, but fails to
eliminate illegitimate barriers, which result in causing a disparity between
genders. Third, women are left out of policy considerations, and thereby
suffer from distorted human resource allocation, which, in turn, make the
investments in education and training a waste.
It is believed that there are many discouraged woman workers in Korea
just as in foreign countries. In order to understand the women's
unemployment structure, it is imperative the magnitude and the changes in
the number of discouraged women workers be analyzed. According to the
NSO's Economically Active Population survey, there have been conducted
survey on past job search experience and reasons why the discouraged
would not search for jobs. However, the NSO did not publish such items.
Thus, this study defines discouraged workers as those who did not search
for jobs during the survey week but do have the desire and ability to work
and have not been employed for income for the past six months.
Based on this definition, 68,000 men are discouraged workers, accounting
for 24.3% of the total unemployed men, numbered at 280,000, in 1995.
Discouraged women workers numbered at 142,000, which was much more
than the total number of unemployed women, that is, 139,000. While
unemployed women accounted for 33.2% of the officially total unemployed,
with discouraged workers included, women accounted for 44.7% of the total
unemployed. In 1998, after the government received financial aid from the
IMF, the official number of unemployed men and women stood at 617,000
and 317,000 respectively, but the figures rose to 851,000 and 643,000
respectively when discouraged workers were included. As of December, the
official number of unemployed men and women was recorded at 1.1 million
and 573,000 respectively, but then rose to 1.4 million and 1.1 million,
respectively, when discouraged workers were included. This means that the
total number of unemployed had exceeded 2.5 million.
[Table3] The Number of Unemployed Men and Women According to the
Different Definitions of Unemployment
Unit: Thousand Person
+-------+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Official Unemployment Rate | Including Discouraged Unemployment Rate |
| +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Total Male Female %F | Total Male Female %F |
+-------+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 1995 | 419 280 139 33.2 | 629 348 281 44.7 |
| 1996 | 425 290 134 31.5 | 628 362 266 42.4 |
| 1997 | 556 352 204 36.7 | 903 466 437 48.4 |
| 1998 | 1,463 986 477 32.6 | 2,197 1,223 974 44.3 |
+-------+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Note: 1) The number of discouraged workers in 1998 was calculated based on
the proportion of discouraged workers to the official number of
unemployed for the years of 1995-97.
Source: NSO (1997, 1998), Economically Active Population Survey, Raw data.
The alternative unemployment rate of Korea, including discouraged
workers ([official number of unemployed + number of discouraged
workers]/[number of economically participating population + number of
discouraged workers] × 100) is as shown in Table 4. When the official
unemployment rate (OUR) and alternative unemployment rate (AUR) are
compared, ① the OUR in 1998 was 6.8%, but the figure rose by 3.1% to
9.9% when discouraged workers were included. ② The OUR implies the
men's rate is higher than the women's, but when the hidden unemployed are
included, women's rate is higher than the men's. In other words, when the
hidden unemployed are included, women's unemployment is more serious
than men's unemployment. ③ The OUR implies a rapid rise from 4.5% to
6.9% between January and May 1998, which continued at 7% between June
and December. However, the AUR, including the discouraged workers,
implies the unemployment rate continued to increase from January 1998
with the exception of October and November. This means that, despite the
implementation of the unemployment policy from January, unemployment
continued to rise. ④ The contrast between OUR and AUR is greater for
women. Women's OUR, with the exception of July and December, shows a
gradual increase from February. However, the AUR shows a sharper rise
from March than that shown by the OUR, and in particular, the monthly
fluctuation from July is much greater for AUR than OUR. Such difference
between the OUR and AUR can be attributed to the economic situation or
unemployment policy that makes the hidden unemployed, mostly women,
turn to the officially unemployed or makes the officially unemployed to
become hidden.
[Table 4>] Men and Women's Unemployment Rate According to the Different
Definitions of Unemployment
Unit: %
+-------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Official Unemployment Rate | Including Discouraged Unemployment Rate |
| +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| | Total Male Female | Total Male Female |
+-------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 1995 | 2.0 2.3 2.3 | 3.0 2.8 3.3 |
| 1996 | 2.0 2.3 2.3 | 2.9 2.9 3.1 |
| 1997 | 2.6 2.8 2.8 | 4.1 3.6 4.8 |
| 1998 | 6.8 7.7 7.7 | 9.9 9.3 10.8 |
| Jan. | 4.5 4.8 4.8 | 7.0 6.6 7.7 |
| Feb. | 5.9 6.5 6.5 | 8.6 8.3 9.1 |
| Mar. | 6.5 7.3 7.3 | 8.8 8.7 9.0 |
| Apr. | 6.7 7.5 7.5 | 9.0 8.8 9.2 |
| May | 6.9 7.8 7.8 | 9.2 9.1 9.4 |
| June | 7.0 7.9 7.9 | 9.6 9.5 9.8 |
| July | 7.6 8.3 8.3 | 10.5 10.2 10.8 |
| Aug. | 7.4 8.4 8.4 | 10.3 10.1 10.5 |
| Sep. | 7.3 8.3 8.3 | 10.6 10.1 11.2 |
| Oct. | 7.1 7.9 7.9 | 9.7 9.5 10.0 |
| Nov. | 7.3 8.2 8.2 | 9.9 9.8 10.8 |
| Dec. | 7.9 8.5 8.5 | 11.4 10.1 12.1 |
+-------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Source: NSO (1997, 1998), Economically Active Population Survey, Raw data.
The Labor Transition Behaviour of Unemployed Men and Women
Using the variable that can indentify the surveyed persons, this study
converted the raw data of the Economically Active Population Survey
(June-December 1998) to panel data. Based on such panel data, a flow
analysis was conducted on the labor market as shown in Table 5. This
Table shows the proportion of those who were employed but became
unemployed after 6 months as 1.48% and those becoming non-participating
as 2.85%. By gender, there were more once-employed men who became
unemployed than became non-participating. In contrast, there were more
once-employed women who became non-participating than unemployed. This
shows that more women employed tend to turn non-participating than
become unemployed.
[Table 5] Transition Rate of the Labor Market (2nd Half of 1998)
Unit: %
+-------------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| After| | After(6 Month Average) |
| +--------+----------------+------------------+-----------------------------+
|Before | |Employment(Et+1)|Unemployment(Ut+1)|Economically non-Active(Nt+1)|
+-------------+--------+----------------+------------------+-----------------------------+
|Employment | Total | - | 1.48 | 2.85 |
| (Et) | Male | - | 4.00 | 0.98 |
| | Female | - | 0.48 | 1.87 |
|Unemployment | Total | 21.12 | - | 12.03 |
| (Ut) | Male | 14.13 | - | 6.09 |
| | Female | 7.02 | - | 5.92 |
|Economically | Total | 3.32 | 1.75 | - |
|non-Active | Male | 1.07 | 0.86 | - |
| (Nt) | Female | 2.24 | 0.87 | - |
+-------------+--------+----------------+------------------+-----------------------------+
Note: The figure shows the rate of those whose employment status
changed from the previous period (t) to that in the next period (t+1).
Source: NSO (June - December, 1998), Economically Active Population
Survey, Panel data.
Overall, the transition rate from unemployed to employed is higher than
those becoming non-participating. By gender, women's transition rate from
unemployed to non-participating was much higher compared to that of men,
which means that more women than men give up looking for jobs and
become non-participating. In contrast, however, the inflow rate from
non-participating to employed was much higher than those becoming
unemployed. By gender, both men and women showed similar transition
rates from non-participating to unemployed, but more woman than men
changed from non-participating to employed.
We followed up the labor transition behaviour of the unemployed from
June to December. The results are shown in Table 6. According to the
results, 15.6% of those unemployed in June stayed unemployed until
December with 52.2% being reemployed and 32.2% converting to
non-participating (refer to the June accumulated data of unemployed of
Table 6). The monthly data shows that 18.0% of those who were
unemployed in June got reemployed in July, but the rate of those that were
reemployed after 6 months was only 13.0%. That is, although there are
slight differences in each month, generally, the rate of unemployed being
reemployed declines over time. Meanwhile, the rate of those becoming
non-participating after 1 month was 11.7% but 9.8% after six months. This
implies that the rate of unemployed becoming non-participating also drops
as time passes and that more unemployed become non-participating soon
after they lose their jobs than a longer period after losing their jobs.
[Table 6] Transition Behavior of Unemployed Men and Women
Unit: %
+---------------------------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | June |July |Aug. |Sep. |Oct. |Nov. |Dec. |
+---------------------------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Unemployed in June (Every Month) | Total |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 70.3 73.1 70.6 74.7 74.6 77.2 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.0 15.4 19.4 18.8 14.5 13.0 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 11.7 11.5 10.0 6.5 10.9 9.8 |
| lly non-Active | |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Unemployed in June (Accumulation) | |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 70.3 51.4 36.3 27.1 20.2 15.6 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.0 28.8 38.8 45.6 49.5 52.2 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 11.7 19.8 24.9 27.3 30.2 32.2 |
| lly non-Active | |
|---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Unemployed in June (Every Month) | Male |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 74.1 75.8 72.8 76.3 76.0 77.5 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.0 15.4 19.1 18.2 15.2 13.9 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 7.9 8.9 8.1 5.4 8.8 8.6 |
| lly non-Active | |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Unemployed in June (Accumulation) | |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 70.3 53.3 38.8 29.6 22.5 17.4 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.0 29.4 39.6 46.6 51.1 54.3 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 11.7 18.3 22.6 24.7 27.3 29.2 |
| lly non-Active | |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Unemployed in June (Every Month) | Female |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 62.3 66.6 64.3 69.4 69.2 76.0 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.1 15.5 20.2 20.6 12.1 9.6 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 19.6 17.9 15.5 10.0 18.7 14.4 |
| lly non-Active | |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Unemployed in June (Accumulation) | |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Unemployed|100.0 70.3 46.8 30.1 20.9 14.5 11.0 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Employed | - 18.0 27.7 37.1 43.3 45.8 47.2 |
|Last Month Unemployed→ This Month Economica-| - 11.7 22.9 30.1 33.1 37.0 39.1 |
| lly non-Active | |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
Source: NSO (June-December, 1998), Economically Active Population Survey,
Panel data.
By gender, the rate of women who changed from unemployed to
employed after six months was 47.2%, while men's rate was 54.3%. Women's
reemployment rate was relatively lower than that of men. By the period of
unemployment, both men and women showed similar rates of reemployment
between 1 and 4 months of unemployment. However, after the 5th month of
unemployment, women showed a far lower rate of being reemployed than
men. This implies the difficulties faced by long-term unemployed women in
finding new jobs. Moreover, despite the low reemployment rate compared to
that of men, women also showed a lower rate of remaining unemployed
compared to men (11.0% of women remained unemployed for more than 6
months while the figure was 17.4% for men). Such a phenomenon can be
attributed to the high rate of women becoming non-participating compared
to men. Nearly 40% of unemployed women became non-participating after
being unemployed for more than 6 months (compared to 29.2% for men).
The rate of conversion to non-participating was higher in the early stage of
unemployment.
Only 9.0% of men who were reemployed after 6 months were employed as
a regular employees and 39.4% and 33.2% were employed as daily or
temporary, workers, respectively. And the remaining 12.8% became
self-employed. This was similar for women as well. Only 7.0% were
reemployed as full-time employees while 51.0% were employed as temporary
and 33.5% as daily workers. Regardless of gender, most of those who were
unemployed in June 1998 were reemployed as temporary or daily employees
and less than 10% were reemployed as full-time employees. By gender,
men's rate of being reemployed as temporary or daily workers was slightly
higher than that of women. 70% of those who once were unemployed were
reemployed for the same job position they once were engaged in. However,
the remaining 20% had been reemployed at job positions lower than ones
they occupied before. This pattern was similar for women as well.
This paper then studied the personal characteristics of the unemployed
according to their job transition behavior. The characteristics of the
unemployed surveyed in June and characteristics of those who were
reemployed, those who converted to non-participating, and those who
remained unemployed, all surveyed after June, were compared. As for men,
those in their 30s or 40s, who were married and had been educated up to
high school were mostly reemployed, while those who tended to become
non-participating were less than 29 years old, unmarried, and college
graduates. In contrast, the characteristics of unemployed women who were
reemployed were the same as for those women who turned
non-participating, such as married, over 40 years old, and educated up to or
less than high school. Those under 29 years of age, unmarried, and college
graduates were still looking for jobs.
Personal Characteristics of Unemployed Women
The unemployment rate of men aged 15-24 was nearly 20% in 1998.
Unemployment rate of the prime laborforce group was also high at 7%, and
unemployment rate of elderly group (aged 55 and above) was also high at
5%. While women's unemployment rates according to age showed a similar
pattern, overall, their rate tended to be lower than that of men. The
unemployment rate of young women, standing at 13%, was also lower than
that of the same age-group men. Women less than 29 years old comprised
50.0% of the total unemployed women (37.7% for men), implying that the
unemployment situation of young women was serious.
The unemployment pattern according to marriage status showed that
42.8% were unmarried and 51.3% married. However, of those unmarried, the
rate of those with deceased spouses or divorcees accounted for only 2.5%
and 3.3% relatively. The distribution of the unemployed by gender shows
that relatively more women compared to men were unmarried (45.8%) or
had deceased spouses (5.3%). In sum, women whose husbands were
deceased accounted for 69.2% of those unemployed, unmarried women 62.9%,
women 34.9%, and married women 28.8%.
The unemployment rate was also analyzed based on the level of education.
In 1990, 0.7% of the unemployed were educated only up to primary school
or less, but those who graduated from colleges or above accounted for
4.4%. The unemployment rate of highly educated persons dropped slightly
after 1990, reaching 3.0% in 1997, which was similar to 3.3% recorded by
the unemployed who had been educated up to high school. The
unemployment rate soared regardless of the educational level after the onset
of the economic crisis, but the rate increased more sharply for the
less-educated, such as those having finished only up to secondary or high
school level. Breaking down the analysis by gender, before 1998, men and
women both showed similar patterns. However, after 1998, men's pattern
showed higher unemployment for junior high graduates and high school
graduates compared to college graduates while women's pattern showed the
unemployment increase concentrated on high school graduates and college
graduates. In sum, the economic crisis worsened the unemployment situation
for less educated men, such as secondary or high school graduates, and for
women who received higher education, such as high school or college
graduates.
[Table 7] Trends in Men and Women's Unemployment According to Their
Level of Education
Unit: %
+----+---------------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+
| | Total | Male | Female |
+----+---------------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+
| |Elemen Middle High College|Elemen Middle High College|Elemen Middle High College|
| |tary and |tary and |tary and |
| |School School School Univ. |School School School Univ.|School School School Univ. |
+----+---------------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+
|1990| 0.7 1.8 3.4 4.4 | 1.2 2.3 3.5 4.1 | 0.3 1.1 3.1 5.3 |
|1995| 0.7 1.6 2.5 2.7 | 1.2 2.0 2.6 2.5 | 0.4 1.0 2.4 3.3 |
|1996| 0.7 1.6 2.5 2.6 | 1.2 1.9 2.7 2.5 | 0.4 1.2 2.1 2.9 |
|1997| 1.0 2.2 3.3 3.0 | 1.5 2.5 3.3 2.6 | 0.6 1.7 3.3 3.7 |
|1998| 4.2 7.8 8.2 5.7 | 6.0 9.7 8.7 5.6 | 2.9 5.5 7.2 6.0 |
+----+---------------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+
Source: NSO (1997), Annual Report on the Economically Active Population Survey,
NSO (1998), Economically Active Population Survey, Raw data.
Most unemployment studies are conducted on the individual level.
However, employment situation is disassociated from the family of the
laborer. Thus, from a social welfare perspective, establishing policies solely
based on the individual's economic status is not the right approach. In this
regard, recently studies are being conducted to find out how the market
situation influences the family's economy and members. In Korea, it has been
found that 35.2% of the unemployed have no other income-earning member
in his/her family. By gender, that was 46.2% of unemployed men and 24.2%
of unemployed women. By the type of unemployment, it was 27.0% of
women who had turned from non-participating to unemployed, 2 | | |