• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.53-72
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• 2011

This study analyzes the effects of life course events and labor market conditions on the duration of career interruption among Korean women. The data were drawn from 'A Survey on the Women's Employment Interruption in Korea' conducted by the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality in 2009(currently the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family). This study categorizes the duration of career interruption into three categories: (1) short term interruption(less than 12months), (2) short-medium term interruptio(12-35 months), (3) intermediate term interruption(36-59 months), (4) long term interruption(longer than 36 months), and then analyzes how demographic factors, labor market condition, and life events shape the timing of re-entry into the labor market among women. According to the findings, the jobs that are conducive to combining market work and mother's role expedite women's return to the labor market. Further, the younger, higher the level of human capital, and higher monthly wages that women earned before leaving the labor market, women are likely to experience short-term interruption(less than 12 months) rather than long-term interruption(longer than 60 months). Women who left from the labor market to care for kids are also likely to return to the labor market. However, women who have preschoolers are likely to experience long-term career interruption. These findings highlight the role of family supportive culture at the workplace in order for women to continue their employment while intensive family formation period. Furthermore, the finding that the discriminatory practices against women, in particular mother workers at the workplace lead women to exit from the market work calls for attention to establish family friendly workplace.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.204-229
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• 1988

This paper documents and discusses trends and differentials in youth's participation in the labor force and employment. Youth in this study is defined asthe young aged 15-29. Youth passes through a series of life-course transitions,which include school completion own family formation(marriage and childbirth) .mandatory service in the army (by males) , and their economic activities are affectedby those life-course events. Accordingly we show how and to what extent youth'slabor force participation and employment varies with age and how the age patternhas changed over time.Throughout the 1980's and 1990's, youth's labor force participation showeddifferent trends by age group Labor fDrce participation rate of the 15-19 agedsteeply decreased, while that of the 25-29 steadily increased during the twodecades, the rate fsr the 20-24 aged showing not much variation. The former is dueto the increased rate of school enrollment among the age group, while the lattercould be attributed, in part, to the young women s increased and more steadyparticipation in the labor force over time.While labor force participation could be considered as a result of one's choicesand preferences, employment opportunities are more or less restricted by labormarket structure and institutions . This study documents how the structuralconstraints have interacted with individual and group attributes to differentiateemployment opportunities between individuals (educational background) and groups(especially sex diffrences) . One of the most salient feature of youth's em[ploymentstructure is the recent high unemployment rate of the college graduates. We discusshow that is related to the'credential society'in which one's educational credentials and it's social status play major role in determining who gets what in terms of job opportunities. Also is discussed the discordance between school and labor marketsupply and demand system, which is apparent in the prolonged oversupply of thecollege graduates, which is due to the consistently high rate of college entranceobserved since the early 1980's. Theoretically the job market for college graduates isviewed not as the'neoclassical'wage competition market but as job competition market in which one's (good) job opportunity is determined by one s position in thejob queue, which is in turn heavily dependent on from which college one get shis/her college degree as well as one's sex.