NSO Releases Report on Employers in Korea

According to a report released yesterday by the Korea National Statistical Office (NSO), the number of female employers who are running businesses with employees is 373,000, up 23.1 percent from 303,000 in October 2003.

The number of female employers as of October has varied from year to year, from 333,000 in 2004 to 347,000 in 2005 to 344,000 in 2006.

The number of male employers decreased by 12.7 percent to 1,212,000 as of October this year from 1,389,000 as of October 2003. The number of male and female employers in total was 1,585,000 as of October this year, down 6.3 percent from four years ago (1,692,000).

The number of self-employed women who run their businesses without hiring any employees increased to 1,521,000 as of October this year, up 9.7 percent from 1,386,000 as of October 2003; whereas, the number of self-employed men decreased by 2.7 percent during the same period.

Meanwhile, in terms of regular workers, which are considered having stable jobs with more than one-year employment period, the number of women was 2,895,000 as of October this year, up 33.2 percent from October 2003 (2,173,000). However, the number of male regular workers rose merely by 14.5 percent from 5,178,000 as of October 2003 to 5,930,000 as of October this year.

Experts say that this situation is based on the fact that a large number of women who just worked household jobs have sought other types of jobs as the number of unemployed men has risen since the 1997 financial crisis.

jarrett@donga.com