Women in 30s driving S. Korea's sharpest employment growth

Korea Herald

27-05-2025

More South Korean women in their 30s are working today than at any point in the country's history, driven by changing views on marriage, childbirth and career, along with a labor market that is slowly adapting in response.
According to the latest data from Statistics Korea, updated on May 14, the employment rate for women aged 30 to 39 jumped from 61.3 percent in 2021 to 71.3 percent in 2024. The figure represents a 10 percentage point rise in just three years, far outpacing the 2.2 percentage point increase in the overall national employment rate during the same period. Early 2025 numbers suggest the upward trend is continuing.
Public sector labor researchers say much of this growth reflects a major cultural shift. More women are delaying or opting out of marriage and childbirth, and instead choosing to stay in the workforce. The Korea Employment Information Service, a government-affiliated research institute under the Ministry of Labor, noted that low marriage and fertility rates are contributing to higher employment among women, as fewer leave the labor market for caregiving roles.
But it's not just about those choosing not to start families. More women are now returning to their jobs after childbirth, helped by improvements in parental leave policies and work-life balance programs. The Korean Women's Development Institute, a state-funded think tank under the Prime Minister's Office, found that negative employment effects linked to having young children are slowly easing. In 2016, having a child under six reduced a woman's likelihood of employment by 24.2 percent. By 2023, that figure had fallen to 19.4 percent.
The share of women in their 30s who experience career breaks has also declined. In 2014, 37.3 percent of women in this age group had left work due to caregiving or family-related reasons. By 2024, it was down to 23.9 percent.
These changes have begun to reshape the makeup of South Korea's workforce. Women in their 30s are increasingly entering high-growth industries that were once dominated by men. In the information and communications sector, the number of employed women in this age group nearly doubled from around 83,000 in 2021 to over 162,000 in 2025, according to Statistics Korea. Similar increases have been seen in scientific and technical fields, which tend to offer better employee benefits and more flexible work arrangements.
Public sector and health care jobs, which recovered quickly after the pandemic, have also helped drive this trend. Government data shows the number of women in public administration and social welfare roles rose from 87,000 in 2021 to more than 144,000 by 2025. Health care jobs increased by nearly 48,000 over the same period.
As a result, the old pattern known as the 'M-curve,' where women's employment dropped sharply during their 30s due to childbirth and caregiving, appears to be fading. According to the latest Statistics Korea data in April, women in their 30s had the highest employment rate of any female age group in South Korea, at 73.1 percent.
Still, researchers warn that this employment surge is closely linked to South Korea's plummeting birth rate, one of the lowest in the world. KWDI researcher Jung Sung-mi cautioned that while increased female labor participation is a step forward, it is 'largely being driven by a demographic crisis, not policy success.'