
South Korea's female employment in 2023 marked an all-time high of 54.1 percent, government data showed Friday as women aged 30-34 saw the most significant growth out of all age groups compared to a decade ago.
A total of 12.46 million women were employed in South Korea in 2023, with overall female employment increasing from 48.9 percent in 2013, according to the joint report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Male employment inched up from 71.1 percent to 71.3 percent in the same period, as the gender disparity in employment decreased by 5 percentage points.
The country's female employment has been on the upward trend since 2013, dipping slightly from 51.6 percent to 50.7 percent in 2020, but increasing each year since.
Female employment increased across all age groups, but most notably among the 30-34 group. Employment for this particular group was 56.7 percent in 2013, jumping 14.6 percentage points to 71.3 percent for 2023.
The 25-29 group marked the highest female employment rate at 74.3 percent, followed by the 30-34 group, 69 percent for those aged 50-54, 67.4 percent for 45-49, 66.6 percent for 55-59, 64.7 percent for both 35-39 and 40-44, 50.5 percent for 20-24, 36.7 percent for those aged 60 and older and just 8.6 percent for teens aged 15-19.
The 2013 survey had shown a clear trend of what the government has termed "career-intervened women," referring to women who failed to return to the workforce due to pregnancy and child-rearing. This was demonstrated in the M-shaped curve marked by a significant dip among employment for women in their 30s.
Such a dip still existed to some extent but on a much-smaller scale, due to the rapid rise in employment for women in their 30s. In addition to the surge in employment for the 30-34 group, women aged 35 to 39 also saw employment grow from 54.4 percent to 64.7 percent in the past decade.
The wage gap between the genders also was the smallest in the country's history, with the average hourly wage for women being 18,502 won ($12.70) compared to 26,042 won for men.
As of 2022, South Korea's gender wage gap was found to be the highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at 31.2 percent disparity. The latest figure of 29 percent disparity is marginally smaller than the 2022 figure, but substantially larger than the 2022 OECD average of 11.4 percent.