40 percent left their jobs in the past 2 years
Since the 1997-98 financial crisis that forced South Korea to seek bailout from the International Monetary Fund, many salary workers in their 30s and 40s have been grappling with unstable employment amid a wave of corporate restructuring. A new study showed that only 60.4 percent of salary workers in that age group have stayed at their current jobs over the past two years. The study looked at 2,607 male salary workers in their 30s and 40s, released by the Korea Labor Research Institute (KLRI) and featured in the June edition of the Monthly Labor Review. It found that 60.4 percent of the workers had stayed with their jobs between 2003 and 2005. The figures for 2003 to 2005 are behind the those for the period between 1995 and 1997, when 74.5 percent of male salary workers stayed at their jobs between 1995 and 1997, just before the Asian financial crisis hit. Of the workers surveyed in the more recent survey, 92.6 percent were the sole household earners, meaning a rise of job insecurity could pose a large impact on families.For workers holding a college degree, the two-year job retention rate was 72.2 percent, while the rate stood at 39.5 percent for those who completed primary or secondary education. Eighty-one percent of workers belonging to labor unions kept their jobs, with 54.7 percent of non-union members staying on for two years. “The study suggests that job security has become a problem for salary workers,” said Keum Jae-ho, head of the KLRI's research and management center.
