• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 2011

This study investigates the patterns of labor market polarization and analyzes the characteristics and roles of regional labor market in the structuring process of the polarization in the metropolitan areas of Korea. The labor market polarization plays a role of key mechanism for deepening social exclusion in the area through expanding low-pay jobs and working poor. It is of great significance to adopt a spatial approach of local labor market in order to understand underlying dynamics of labor market polarization. Especially it is necessary to develop a more differentiated and systematic policy options based on the analysis of labor market polarization in the metropolitan areas of Korea. It is because understanding spatial differentiation of labor market dynamics is essential to figure out the structuring processes of poverty and sociall exclusion in the metropolican labor market in Korea.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.21-54
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• 2012

This paper investigates how technological change and the consequential occupational choices do influence the recent Korea labor market. Following Autor, Levy and Murnane (2003) and Autor, Katz and Kearney (2006), it shows that decreasing price of computer assets raises relative wages for nonroutine tasks and the self-selected occupational choices with increasing demands for computerization in routine tasks would be a main cause for the job polarization in the labor market.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.187-207
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• 2002

This study investigates the wage determination process of regional labor markets in order to understand the regional dimension of labor market processes in Korean metropolitan cities. Since the financial crisis in late 1997, the interplay between labor market restructuring such as unemployment and skill polarization and income disparity has been shaped by the labor market process in the metropolitan cities. This is also closely related to the fact that both industrial restructuring and expanding information technologies in the metropolitan region have reshaped the labor demand structure and finally resulted in structural unemployment due to skill mismatch and spatial mismatch and wage inequality across different occupations. In addition, since wage determination process clearly has a regional dimension, wage determination and its influence on income profile in a certain regional labor market need to be understood by investigating its labor market characteristics including labor supply and demand structure, industrial changes, changing unemployment, etc. This is why labor market policy as a regional policy needs to be redefined and it can be much enhanced by geographical investigation on regional labor market.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.49-63
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• 2023

This study investigates the occupational mobility patterns of young wage employees at the local level of the labor market and empirically examines the interplay between worker-level and local labor market-level determinants between 2010 and 2020. The 4th to 14th waves of the Youth Panel 2007 were integrated with the Korea Network for Occupations and Workers and the Local Area Labor Force Survey for estimation using hierarchical linear model. Our results indicate that Gross Regional Domestic Product per capita is key determinant of occupational upward mobility. Also, Estimates of employment size, population density, and the unemployment rate of local labor market have different effects depending on the education level and occupational location of youth workers, suggesting that the effects of structural factors of local labor market may not be distributed equally among all youth wage workers. The findings have policy implications regarding the recent rise in inequality and polarization in local labor markets.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.102-114
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• 2021

India has recently experienced an acute crisis confronting the COVID-19 pandemic as confirmed cases exceeded 11.73 million in March 2021, which was the second worst scale only after the United States. The strict lockdown measures as well as the pandemic itself posed a serious threat of survival, in particular, to immigrant workers engaged in informal sectors, which triggered their reverse immigration. In case the COVID-19 pandemic continues in 2021, it is estimated that in the sector of tourism and service alone, more than 20 million jobs will disappear. The damage on industry is already being realized with the significant decrease of workforce. It is important to note, however, that jobless growth and labor polarization were observed even before the outbreak of COVID-19, and that the pandemic only served as one of the trigger catalysts that made those submerged problems burst out. In this study, we examine the structural problems in industry and labor market in India and consider the social context and efficacy of the "Make in India" or "Atmanirbhar Bhrat" policy. The latter initiative was presented in the trenches of the pandemic in 2020. While considering the complexity of problems, we would like to pursue a future-oriented approach and propose a direction in restructuring the labor market, attempted at reversing the critical conditions following the fourth industrial revolution and digitization into the shortcut to labor market restructuring.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.94-110
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• 2008

This study examines the unemployment and labor market demand dynamics as well as their implication for social exclusion in the metropolitan areas of Korea since the financial crisis of 1997. The unemployment research containing significant implication for social exclusion is a key area to be explored with the research of skill and income polarization due to structural economic transformation. Skill polarization usually results in the job loss for some people, which most likely leads to the economic deprivation and social exclusion. The unemployment rate and its regional disparity began to fall since 2000, but the disparity reversed to increase after 2005. The labor market dynamics of the metropolitan areas are turned out to be related with the size of the city and the relative shares of both manufacturing and service sectors. In addition, the employment growth is turned out to be related with the changes of both output and productivity. It is also found that the unemployment is affected with the job change and the tertiarization of the economy. However, it is of more significance to recognize that the dynamics and patterns of the labor market in the metropolitan areas are quite spatially differentiated and the differentiation is likely determined by the factors such as industrial structure, employment dynamics and job demand changes.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.53-95
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• 2015

This paper first constructs an occupation code-skill match for the Korean labor market by following Autor-Dorn classification on the tasks framework. Over the last 34 years, middle-skill jobs have vanished enormously, while high-skill and low-skill jobs have both increased. Also, jobs have polarized more rapidly in recessions and changed uniquely by pushing old workers into middle and low-skilled jobs and the inter-sector reallocation of workers. Furthermore, jobless recoveries in the recent business cycle could have been alleviated considerably if job polarization had been mitigated.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.33-51
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the changes in the employment structure of occupational groups by job characteristics and analyze the factors influencing wage premiums in local labor markets from 2010 to 2020. This study's analysis involves three primary steps. First, the occupational characteristics data from the Korea Network for Occupations and Workers are subjected to an exploratory factor analysis, and then a non-routine task intensity index is calculated by each occupations. Then, we conduct an exploratory analysis of changes in the distribution of employment by occupation from 2010 to 2020 by combining data from the Population Census with data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study to construct individual-level and regional-level data. Thirdly, we employ a hierarchical linear model to examine the individual-level and regional-level factors influencing wage premiums. Since 2010, the proportion of employment in occupations requiring non-routine task has continued to rise and now dominates the metropolitan labor market. Moreover, agglomeration effects resulting from urbanization produce a substantial wage premium for wage workers in occupations requiring non-routine tasks. This study seeks to provide policy implications to mitigate inequality and polarization in local labor markets by empirically analyzing the transition of occupational structure and wage inequality in relation to the local labor market context.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.68
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• pp.149-169
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• 2015

Recently, it's a trend that the third party outsourcing logistics will be increased a logistics flow from law material to final products. The government also works on promoting logistics company as securing the expertise for strengthen logistics industry and secure competitiveness. Nevertheless, logistics market have been divided by polarization between small logistics company and major company. Also a labor who work for logistics is being caused by worsened working conditions. That is one of results of the survey. Almost 50% of response are they have not been aware of FTA and have not known to need the FTA. Many respondents said that entering the overseas logistics or a new way like FTA will be difficult to take part in. Therefore I suggest several examples in this paper to encourage a vitalization of small logistics company through the multilateral FTA. Now our country needs to make an effort to maximize connections between multilateral FTA and policy effect by signing FTA with many countries and extending Economic territory. This effect can completely cope with the improvement of economic interests, establishing regional integration strategy and change of global supply chain. Therefore, a small business logistics have to make their competitiveness & a new dealing market in the future.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2022

This paper studies how COVID-19 has affected the labor market in Korea through a general equilibrium model with multiple industries and occupations. In the model, workers are allocated to one of many occupations in an industry, and industrial or occupational shocks alter the employment structure. I calibrate the model with Korean data and identify industrial and occupational shocks, referred to here as COVID-19 shocks, behind the employment dynamics in 2020 and 2021. I find that COVID-19 shocks are more severe for those with jobs with a higher risk of infection and in those that are more difficult to do from home. Interestingly, the relationship between COVID-19 shocks and infection risk weakened as the pandemic progressed, whereas the relationship between COVID-19 shocks and easiness of work-from-home strengthened. I interpret the results as meaning that the pandemic may direct future technological changes to replace tasks that require contact-intensive steps, and I simulate the impact of such technological changes through the lens of the model. The results show that such technological changes will lower the demand for manual workers compared to the demands for other occupations. This contrasts with the earlier trend of job polarization, where manual workers continued to increase their employment share, with the share of routine workers secularly declining at the same time.