SEJONG -- South Korea posted the highest growth in the portion of part-timers of all employed women among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in recent years.

In its analysis on the part-time employment of women by the Paris-based organization for 36 of its members, 20.8 percent of all Korean employed women had a part-time job status as of 2019, the latest year for which data was available.

Compared to 2014, when the figure stood at 15.5 percent, this marked a climb by 5.3 percentage points in just five years. Korea topped the list in growth among the 36 economies, while the US was not included in the comparison among the total 37 OECD members.

The OECD defined part-time employment as people in employment -- whether employees or self-employed -- who typically work less than 30 hours per week in their main job.

This could suggest that more Korean women have endured relatively weak job security as nonregular workers. On the contrary, some local researchers say that the growing percentage can be attributed to active participation in economic activities among young women in their late teens or early 20s and those in their 50s or 60s.
 

The portion, anyway, has been in a declining trend among a large portion of OECD members.

While only seven of the 36 countries posted positive growth, 29 countries saw the percentage of part-timers among female workers slide over the corresponding 2014-2019 period.

Luxembourg recorded the biggest drop, by 7.5 percentage points from 27.7 percent to 20.2 percent. Turkey saw the second-biggest drop with minus 4.4 percentage point growth, while the Netherlands had minus 3.7 and New Zealand had minus 3.5.

Among the next on the list were Portugal with minus 3 percentage points, Ireland with minus 2.6, Spain with minus 2.2, France with minus 2.1, the UK with minus 2, Canada with minus 1.4, Germany with minus 1.2 and Sweden with minus 1.

Except for Korea and Estonia (with a 3.2 percentage point climb), the positive growth held by another five members stayed less than 2 percentage points -- such as 1.9 percentage points both in Japan and Finland.

Meanwhile, the percentage of part-timers among South Korean men stood at 8.9 percent in 2019, OECD data showed.

Though the figure rose by 2.2 percentage points from 6.7 percent in 2014, it was a meager growth compared to Korean women.

Collectively for both men and women, the portion of part-time jobs among total jobs climbed by 3.6 percentage points over the same period to reach 14 percent.

There is a high possibility that the part-timer percentage among women will continue to rise in the wake of the novel coronavirus as well as drastic hikes in minimum wages under the Moon Jae-in administration.

According to data held by Statistics Korea, the number of female discouraged workers -- who have abandoned looking for jobs -- reached an all-time high of 359,000 in January 2021.

This recorded a surge by 65.4 percent, 142,000 people, from 217,000 in January 2020.

Compared to June 2017 -- a month after President Moon took office -- when the figure stood at 185,000, the growth in the number of female discouraged workers surged by 94 percent.

The tally counts people who did not carry out job-seeking activities during the prior four weeks or longer, though they had looked for jobs within the past 12 months.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)