Economic Crisis, Neoliberal Reforms, and the Rise of Precarious Work in South Korea

Abstract

This article explores the extensive casualization of work and its impact on the working life of the people in South Korea after the financial crisis in 1997. A drastic increase in precarious workers was an immediate consequence of the neoliberal economic reform implemented by the new democratic government, including the enhancement of flexibility in the labor market and the restructuring of the financial market, under the guidance of the International Monetary Fund. Precarious work in South Korea has dramatically increased in the past decade, including both nonregular workers and precarious self-employment in the formal sector. Above all, proliferation of new types of nonregular employment in the 2000s has witnessed the significant transformation of the world of work in South Korea, deepening inequality and poverty. The extremely liberalized labor market tends to result in the fierce labor struggle of nonregular workers, not entitled to be members of unions, replacing the labor movement of regular workers' labor unions.

The changing role of employment status in marriage formation among young Korean adults

“…By contrast, the youngest cohort faced a substantially different labor and marriage market when they became of marriageable age. As numerous scholars have pointed out (Shin 2012), the economic crisis of 1997 exerted a profound impact on Korean society, so much so that despite higher education expanding significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Kim and Kim 2015), baccalaureate and even doctoral degrees no longer guarantee access to high-paying professional occupations. Hence, the dual-earner model was preferred, and in the recent Korean marriage market women with higher earnings potential might be at an advantage.…”

“…This may reflect the substantial growth of contingent or non-regular work in recent years, such as temporary, contract, and part-time work that offers low wages and benefits with few opportunities for career advancement (Shin 2012). Because of the decreasing number of marriageable men, employed young men would be regarded as more qualified candidates for marriage than in the past.…”

“…Precarious work refers to economic insecurity or unpredictability due to the changing nature of work itself or changing labor regulations. As illustrated in the lower left panel in Figure 1, the proportion of non-regular workers, which includes limited-term workers, part-time workers, and atypical workers such as dispatched workers, subcontract workers, special independent workers, home workers, and daily workers (Shin 2012), reached its peak in 2004 when 28.8% of men aged between 25 and 34 and 36.0% of women in the same age group fell into these categories.…”

“…Furthermore, Oppenheimer argues that, contrary to Becker's claim regarding the gendered division of labor, wives in the past always worked for pay when circumstances required, and specialization in marriage is an inflexible and risky strategy for a nuclear family in today's world (Oppenheimer 1997). Given the current labor market context in Korea, characterized by high rates of unemployment, underemployment, and precarious jobs (Kim and Shin 2008;Shin 2012), the dual-earner strategy has become the most rational option for young couples and can be seen as insurance against future risk of income loss. Alongside these societal transformations, women's earnings have become increasingly important for marriage, while men's earnings may have become somewhat less important.…”

Unacceptable forms of work: A multidimensional model

“…Research in Europe has indicated that the incidence of "precarious employment or low quality jobs" was higher than one quarter in the five countries studied (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and closer to one-third in Spain (ESOPE 2005, 68). Other advanced economies have witnessed a growth in precarious employment, including Canada and the US (Vosko 2006;Kalleberg 2009), and South Korea has experienced an increase since the financial crisis that has accelerated since 2000 (Shin 2013). While the research has tended to focus on countries with advanced economies, recently the lens of Precarious Work has been used to examine work in lower-income settings.…”