Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T13:12:21.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Precarious employment among South Korean women: Is inequality changing with time?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Noël Bonneuil  and
Younga Kim
Noël Bonneuil
Affiliation:
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, France; French National Institute for Demographic Studies, France
Younga Kim*
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
*
Younga Kim, Centre de recherche en démographie, Université catholique de Louvain, 1 Place Montesquieu bte L2.08.03, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Email: youngakim@ymail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Theories of precarious employment based on the constructs of job quality and job stability have highlighted the issue of transitions, linked to gender and age, from long-duration employment in bad-quality jobs, into good-quality stable employment. This article uses Markov chain analysis to study the labour market transitions of South Korean women in different age groups. It shows the importance of differentiating the effects of contemporary labour market conditions, shaped by the forces of the moment, from conditions created by the institutional legacy of the past. Women’s traditional position in the labour market has resulted in age-linked gendered precariousness, while the conditions of the moment are generating a tendency towards less precarious employment. Transition matrices are developed for types of precarious employment defined by the combination of job stability and job quality, taking into account duration by age group, time period, and covariates. These matrices yield distributions of asymptotic prevalence, reflecting labour market conditions of the moment. The forces of the moment favour the predominance of stable good-quality employment, whereas observed prevalence at a given date is characterised by the polarisation of the labour market between stable good-quality and unstable bad-quality employment. Asymptotic prevalence reveals a steady increase in stable but bad-quality employment. Older women are observed mostly in unstable bad-quality employment, but labour market conditions are tending to attenuate this age cleavage over time, as the conditions of the moment are reducing the proportions of older women in stable bad-quality and unstable good-quality employment. The conclusion is an age-based polarisation, in which older women are faring badly, but where possibilities are now opening up to younger South Korean women, reflected in the sharp break between the situation inherited from the past and the conditions of the moment. But possibilities for younger women will be realised only through a reinforcement of government policies to support career breaks and work–family balance through decent part-time jobs.

Keywords

J08J28J44Asymptotic prevalenceemployment stabilityinequalityintergenerational polarisationjob qualitylabour market polarisationMarkov chainprecarious employmentquality of employment
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 20 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bae, E-K (2009) ‘Economic crisis’ and Korean women: women’s vision-of-life and intersection of class and gender. Issues in Feminism 9(2): 39–82 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Burgess, J, Campbell, I (1998) The nature and dimensions of precarious employment in Australia. Labour & Industry 8(3): 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, S (2013) ‘I am king’: financialisation and the paradox of precarious work. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 24(3): 362–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, J (2001) Gender differences in non standard employment in South Korea. Economy and Society 51: 68–96.Google Scholar
Cheon, B-Y (2007) Labour market polarization in Korea: vanishing middle class? Journal of Korean Economic Analysis 13(2): 171–244 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Cohen, JE (1979) Ergodic theorems in demography. Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 1(2): 275–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cranford, CJ, Vosko, LF, Zukewich, N (2003) The gender of precarious employment in Canada. Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 58(3): 454–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebert, N (2011) Precarious work-societies. Exchange 5: 6–10.Google Scholar
Eun, S-M (2009) Economic crisis and women’s jobs. Issues in Feminism 9(1): 143–158 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Fuller, S, Vosko, LF (2008) Temporary employment and social inequality in Canada: exploring intersections of gender, race and immigration status. Social Indicators Research 88(1): 31–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goos, M, Manning, A (2007) Lousy and lovely jobs: the rising polarization of work in Britain. The Review of Economics and Statistics 89(1): 118–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottfried, H (2008) Pathways to economic security: gender and nonstandard employment in contemporary Japan. Social Indicators Research 88(1): 179–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hwang, S-K (2003) Women’s Occupational Choices and Its Structure in the Korean Labour Market. Seoul, South Korea: Korea Labour Institute (in Korean).Google Scholar
Jung, S-M (2006) Voluntary choice on unstable employment among women in South Korea. Monthly Labour Review 20: 59–69 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Kalleberg, AL (2011) Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, AL, Reskin, BF, Hudson, K (2000) Bad jobs in America: standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States. American Sociological Review 65(2): 256–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, Y (2007) The changes of labour market and work-family articulation after 1960’s industrialization. Issues in Feminism 7(2): 1–35.Google Scholar
Keum, J, Yoon, J (2011) Change in Female Labour Market after the Economic Crisis. Seoul, South Korea: Korea Labour Institute (in Korean).Google Scholar
Kim, AE, Park, I (2006) Changing trends of work in South Korea: the rapid growth of underemployment and job instability. Asian Survey 46(3): 437–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, H, Voos, PB (2007) The Korean economic crisis and working women. Journal of Contemporary Asia 37(2): 190–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, H-Y, Hong, B-E (2009) The Trends and causes of income inequality among gender. Korean Journal of Social Welfare 61(2): 391–415 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Kim, M (2006) A critical review on the profiles of Korean female labour force: 1960–2000. Korea Journal of Population Studies 29(1): 133–156.Google Scholar
Kim, S-K, Finch, J (2002) Living with rhetoric, living against rhetoric: Korean families and the IMF economic crisis. Korean Studies 26(1): 120–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, T-H (2000) Modifications of Employment Structure and Future Directions for Feminist Policies. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Women’s Development Institute (in Korean).Google Scholar
Kim, Y (2015) Changes in precarious employment among South Korean women. Mathematical Population Studies 22(2): 101–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y-J, Moon, S-Y (2009) An exploratory study on types of care: focused on child care policy. Asian Women’s Studies 48(2): 221–260.Google Scholar
Kim, Y-M, Shin, K-Y (2008) Polarization of married women’s labour market and changes in household income inequality. Economy and Society 79–106 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Kim, Y-O, Min, H-J, Kim, B-S (2006) The Polarization of the Korean Women’s Labour Market. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Women’s Development Institute (in Korean).Google Scholar
Korean Labour Institute (KLI) (2012) 2012 KLI Labour Statistics. Seoul, South Korea: KLI (in Korean).Google Scholar
Korean National Statistical Office (2013) Annual Report on the Vital Statistics. Daejeon, South Korea. (In Korean). Google Scholar
Korean Women’s Development Institute (2006) Statistical Yearbook on Women 2006. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Women’s Development Institute.Google Scholar
Korean Women’s Development Institute (2013) Statistical Handbook: Women in Korea 2013. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Women’s Development Institute.Google Scholar
Lee, S (2006) Bad jobs in Korea: nonstandard employment and job quality. Quarterly Journal of Labour Policy 6(2): 29–76 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Lillard, LA, Panis, CW, Upchurch, DM (1994) Interdependencies over the Life Course: Women’s Fertility, Marital, and Educational Experiences. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Available at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/drafts/DRU763.html (accessed 31 December 2016).Google Scholar
Lopes, H, Lagoa, S, Calapez, T (2014) Work autonomy, work pressure, and job satisfaction: an analysis of European Union countries. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 25(2): 306–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, P, Smeaton, D, Hill, S (2004) Bad jobs in Britain: nonstandard employment and job quality. Work and Occupations 31(2): 225–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Min, H-J (2008) Who gets a good job? an analysis on the entry process into good jobs and bad jobs in the Korean women’s labour market. Economy and Society 78: 223–255 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Ministry of Employment and Labour (2014) 2014 Employment and Labour Policy in Korea. Seoul, South Korea: Ministry of Employment and Labour.Google Scholar
Monk-Turner, E, Turner, C (2004) The gender wage gap in South Korea: how much has changed in 10years? Journal of Asian Economics 15(2): 415–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, M, Bernhardt, AD, Handcock, MS (1994) Economic inequality: new methods for new trends. American Sociological Review 59(2): 205–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, C-K (2004) The change of female non-standard workers’ employment conditions and life satisfaction. Social Welfare Policy 18: 223–245.Google Scholar
Park, S (2003) The longitudinal research on the Korean women’s second labor market transitions. Journal of Korean Women’s Studies 19(1): 43–80. (In Korean).Google Scholar
Park, S, Park, B, Kyun, H, et al . (2009) The Accomplishment and Tasks 20Years after the Equal Employment Act. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Women’s Development Institute.Google Scholar
Park, S-Y (2010) A study on the legal effectiveness of the equal employment act: focused on its implementation over the past 20years and suggestions for improvement. Studies of Social Security Law 15: 111–173.Google Scholar
Paugam, S (2000) Le salarié de la précarité. Les nouvelles formes de l’intégration professionnelle. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Quinlan, M (2012) The ‘pre-invention’ of precarious employment: the changing world of work in context. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 23(4): 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roh, M (1994) Women workers in a changing Korean society. In: Gelb, J, Palley, LM (eds) Women of Japan & Korea: Continuity and Change. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, pp. 240–256.Google Scholar
Shin, K-Y (1998) The transformation of motherhood in South Korea: from the embodiment of sacrifice to workers. Women and Society 9: 159–180 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Shin, K-Y (2013) Economic crisis, neoliberal reforms, and the rise of precarious work in South Korea. American Behavioral Scientist 57(3): 335–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Y-N (2010) Determinants of ‘\’good job of household heads and changes in regional disparity of distribution of ‘good job’. The Korea Local Administration Review 24(4): 209–233 (in Korean).Google Scholar
Standing, G (2011) The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Steele, F (2008) Multilevel models for longitudinal data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A 171(1): 5–19.Google Scholar
Steele, F (2011) Multilevel discrete-time event history models with applications to the analysis of recurrent employment transitions. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics 53(1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, S, Ebert, N (2013) Precarious work: economic, sociological and political perspectives. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 24(3): 263–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, EO, Dwyer, RE (2003) The patterns of job expansions in the USA: a comparison of the 1960s and 1990s. Socio-Economic Review 1(3): 289–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoon, Y, Chun, Y (2008) Determinants of non-standard work arrangements among South Korean women. The Journal of Women and Economics 5(2): 1–30.Google Scholar