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

Author

Listed:
  • Noël Bonneuil

    (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, France; French National Institute for Demographic Studies, France)

  • Younga Kim

    (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium)

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. JEL Codes: J08, J28, J44

Suggested Citation

  • Noël Bonneuil & Younga Kim, 2017. "Precarious employment among South Korean women: Is inequality changing with time?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 20-40, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:28:y:2017:i:1:p:20-40
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304617690482
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Haeyoung Jang & Seung-Ho Kwon, 2022. "Understanding women’s empowerment in post-Covid Korea: A historical analysis," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 351-376, June.
    2. Karl Gauffin, 2020. "Precariousness on the Swedish labour market: A theoretical and empirical account," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 279-298, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asymptotic prevalence; employment stability; inequality; intergenerational polarisation; job quality; labour market polarisation; Markov chain; precarious employment; quality of employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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