One Out of Six Family Heads Jobless

The proportion of households headed by the jobless has reached almost 16 percent.

According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) Wednesday, the ratio of households headed by the unemployed stood at 15.57 percent in the third quarter of this year, up 0.88 percent from 14.69 percent during the same period last year.

It is the highest proportion since the NSO began compiling data in 2003. The proportion of such families stood at 13.61 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2003, steadily increased to 13.74 percent during the same period in 2004; and rose to 14.16 percent in 2005 and 14.69 percent in 2006. It broke the 15 percent mark in the 3rd quarter of 2007.

Given that the total number of households in Korea was 16.16 million as of July 1, 2006, and 16.42 million as of July 1. 2007, the number of households headed by the unemployed increased from some 2.37 million in the 3rd quarter of 2006 to some 2.56 million during the same period in 2007. In other words, the number of unemployed family heads increased by 182,000 in just one year.

Experts believe that the proportion of households headed by the unemployed has continued to increase because the domestic job market has not improved. They also noted that as the country has been facing a rapid aging of its population and more women have been entering the work force, an increasing number of household heads have been relying on the incomes of their children or spouses.

“While the employment rate has been staggering along at 60 percent in Korea, an increasing number of people have given up looking for jobs. I believe this trend resulted in an increase in the proportion of households headed by the unemployed,” said Song Tae-jeong, a senior economist at the LG Economic Research Institute.

In fact, the employment rate remained at 60.4 percent in October this year, the same rate as October of last year. However, the economically non-active population increased from 14.62 million to 14.81 million during this period, up 187,000 or 1.3 percent.

higgledy@donga.com