The number of South Korean salaried workers with four-year college education has risen drastically for the past decade driven by education-oriented South Korean society, government data showed Sunday.

South Korea had 5.4 million employees with college diplomas as of the end of last year, up 88 percent from 2.87 million in 2001, according to figures on the country‘s salaried employees released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

The total workforce climbed 27.4 percent to 17.4 million from 12.6 million during the same time span.

The number of employees with two-year college diplomas also increased 83.1 percent to 2.58 million and those with high school diplomas surged 30.4 percent to 8.24 million.

The number of South Korean workers with middle school or lower grade education declined 61.6 percent to 1.17 million over the past 10 years.

The proportion of women workers surged to 42.7 percent of the total workforce last year from 41.1 percent in 2001.

The average South Korean employee received 2.91 million won ($2,708) in monthly salary last year, up 66.8 percent from 1.74 million won ($1,619) a decade ago.

The inflation rate was 36.7 percent for the past decade, lowering the net pay hike to 28.9 percent, the ministry data showed.

The average monthly work hours for South Korean employees dropped to 189.3 hours in 2011 from 204.9 hours in 2001.

The average age for the South Korean salaried workforce was 39.6 last year, 3.1 years older than 36.5 in 2001. (Yonhap News)