One out of six married women in South Korea opts out of workforce: NSO

One out of six married women in South Korea has opted out of the workforce, to take on most of the childrearing burden in the family. 

Around 1.4 million married women between the ages of 15 and 54 in Korea have left the workforce, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday. That’s 17.2% of the total surveyed by the government. 

Nearly 28% of married women in their 30s have left the workforce, according to the survey.

Sacrificing a career for childrearing was the most common reason for women leaving the workforce, taking up 42.8% of the responses, followed by marriage at 26.3% and pregnancy at 22.7%. 

The number of working moms, or those aged between 15 and 54 who live with children under the age of 18, rose to 2.6 million in the first half of this year, up 16,000 from the same period last year. 

The working mothers' employment rate stands at 57.8%, a 1.6% point from a year ago and the highest rate to date since the NSO began tracking the figure in 2016. 

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.