The number of women leaving the workforce due to childcare has steadily declined for six straight years, dropping to roughly half the level recorded in 2020. At the same time, more than 60 percent of married women aged 15 to 54 living with minor children are now active members of the workforce, according to recent official statistics.

On November 9, data from Statistics Korea’s Korea Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) revealed that as of August, the number of economically inactive women citing childcare as their primary activity stood at 632,000. This represents a 3.8% (39,000) decrease compared to the same month last year.

The number of women citing childcare as their main reason for not working has fallen every year since hitting 1,187,000 in 2020, falling below the one-million mark in 2022. Over the six-year span, this population has plummeted by 46.8% (555,000). Women engaged primarily in childcare currently account for 6.3% of the total female economically inactive population.

Rising Employment Rates Among Married Women

In the first half of last year, the employment rate for married women aged 15 to 54 living with children under 18 reached 64.3%. The rate has risen annually since dropping to 55.5% in 2020, climbing 8.8 percentage points over a five-year period.

Furthermore, the employment rate for married women with children aged six or younger climbed to 57.7%, marking a 2.1 percentage point increase from the previous year.

The quality of employment has also improved. Among female wage earners living with minor children, the proportion of regular (permanent) workers increased. In the first half of last year, regular workers rose by 17,000 to reach 1,786,000, accounting for 80.6% of all female wage earners in this demographic. Conversely, temporary and daily workers fell by 8,000 to 430,000 over the same period.

Kim Sung-hee, a professor at the Labor Research Institute of Korea University, noted, "As living expenses, including housing costs, continue to rise, making a living on a single income has become increasingly difficult. With a growing necessity for dual-income households and improving working conditions for women, we are seeing a softening of the traditional structural trend where employment rates plummeted sharply during marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing years."

Persistent Hurdles for Small Businesses in Parental Leave Access

While a growing percentage of women maintain employment through childbirth, accessing parental leave remains a significant challenge in smaller companies.

The proportion of women who maintained their employment status at the time of childbirth rose from 48.2% in 2020 to 59.9% in 2024. The employment rate gap between 360 days prior to childbirth and the day of childbirth also narrowed from 9.8 percentage points to 7.3 percentage points over the same period.

Looking at employment rates 360 days post-childbirth by birth year, the figures reached 54.3% for 2022 and 56.4% for 2023. Alongside expanded parental leave benefits, the number of beneficiaries grew 9.5% year-on-year to reach 103,983 in the first half of this year.

However, parental leave utilization rates for new mothers varied widely depending on company size. For women who gave birth in 2024, the utilization rate among eligible workers was 78.4% at companies with 300 or more employees, compared to 67.5% at firms with 5 to 49 employees.

In contrast, businesses with four or fewer employees recorded a usage rate of just 41.0%—barely half that of large corporations. Furthermore, a "2024 Work-Family Balance Survey" conducted by the Korean Women's Development Institute found that 18.1% of surveyed businesses employing 5 to 9 workers reported that eligible employees were entirely unable to take parental leave.

Employers citing the impossibility of granting leave most frequently pointed to increased workloads for colleagues and supervisors (35.9%), followed by unsupportive workplace cultures (31.3%) and difficulties in hiring temporary replacements (26.8%).

In response, the government has expanded financial support for substitute workers to help employees in small businesses utilize parental leave. This year, the maximum subsidy for businesses with fewer than 30 employees hiring temporary replacements was raised from 1.2 million won to 1.4 million won per month. The government also supports up to one month of substitute worker expenses required for handovers after the employee returns to work.

Lee Sang-lim, a senior researcher at the Seoul National University Center for Population Policy Studies, emphasized, "One of the primary reasons women choose not to have children is the fear of career interruption. If an environment is established where women can raise children without sacrificing their careers, it could also encourage second births. Policy efforts must focus heavily on eliminating these blind spots."

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