Korean labour and employment issues

1
Korean labour and employment issues

• Dr. Kristiina Korhonen
• Center for Markets in Transition

2
Demographic transition model
CDR crude death rate CBR crude birth rate
3
South Korean demographies

• population of 48.6 million
• urbanisation rate 85
• relatively equal income distribution
• average monthly wage KRW 3,2 million (EUR 2650)
• cohesive family system
• nuclear family has replaced the three (or more)
  generation households

4
Womans role in South Korea

• primarily defined within the household
• participation in labour force has become possible
  because of demographic, economic, and political
  changes
• economic participation is heavily affected by the
  lifecycle stages
• the highly competitive admission process of
  childer to schools requires mothers to spend
  hours helping their children

5
South Koreas population structure

• replacement fertility is 2,1 children per woman
• thus, in South Korea, fertility is low (lt 2,1)
• population will grow until 2050
• life expectancy 75.4 years

9,5 over 64 years
18,6 Under 15 years
71,9 (24 million) 15-64 years
6
South Koreas life expectancy in comparison to
other East and Southeast Asian countries
7
South Korean education and technological
development

• long history of science under the influence of
  China
• emphasis on education based on Confucian ideals
• heavy state intervention as technology plans were
  closely tied with economic plans
• gradual development from technology importer to
  creator of technology of its own
• today,
• one of the highest enrolment rates for
  post-secondary education
• one of the best telecommunication infrastructures
  in the world
• high RD expenditure 2.85 of GDP
• the growth of RD has clear connection with
  economic growth

8
Korean manpower

• diligence
• the average working hours per week is 47 hours
• a six-day workweek is replaced only gradually by
  a five-day workweek system
• holidays total 78 days in a year, including
  Sundays
• lack of English speaking skills
• top management has often international degrees at
  the higher education and good skills in English
• intimate involvement in all company affairs as
  well as in civic activities

9
Unemployment rate

• over the past decades, unemployment has been
  close to full employment rate (as low as 2 )
• Asian crisis resulted in unemployment, which hit
  almost 8
• nowadays unemployment rate is about 3 (827 000
  people)
• but the structure of unemployment has changed
• emergence of the white-collar unemployment
• increasing number of part-time workers
• unemployment among young people (364 000 people)
• eroding lifetime employment practise
• increasing labour market flexibility

10
Development of South Koreas unemployment and
employment rate
11
Shortage of labour force

• job preference of Koreans away from dirty,
  difficult and dangerous jobs (3D jobs)
• massive legal and illegal migration from China
  and the Philippines, nowadays increasingly from
  Pakistan and Bangladesh
• the discrimination of illegal workers in terms of
  wages, benefits and human rights

12
Koreans in the world

• 48 million in South Korea
• 23 million in North Korea
• 2.1 million in the United States
• 1.8 million in China
• 640,000 in Japan
• 500,000 in Russia and former Soviet republics,
  e.g. Kazahkstan
• 110,000 in Canada
• 100,000 in Latin America

13
Korean exodus

• prisoners of war during Mongol invasions (13th
  Century), Japanese invasions (1590s), and Manchu
  invasions (17th Century)
• tributes including human beings to Ming China
  (from 14th to 17th Century)
• modern Korean emigration (since the mid-19th
  Century)
• the main exodus during the colonial years
  (1910-1945)
• overseas adoption program as a solution to the
  presence of bi-racial children (since 1954)

14
Mixed-race population

• traditionally there has not been any minorities
  in Korea
• the first wave of mixed-race children during the
  Korean War
• the second wave due to the Korean farmers and
  blue-collar workers to search a spouse from
  Southeast Asia
• problem is in the discrimination

Hines Ward (American Super Bowl), born to a
Korean mother and a black American soldier
stationed in South Korea.