Employment relations in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

[Extract] The Republic of [South] Korea (hereafter Korea) has a population of 45 million; by the late 1990s almost 80 per cent was urban, an increase from only around 30 per cent in 1962. This compares with urbanisation rates of virtually 100 per cent in Hong Kong and Singapore and 58 per cent in Taiwan, the other Asian newly industrialised economies (NIEs) that are often discussed in relation to Korea. Ethnically homogeneous, about half of South Korea's population are Buddhist, although there is a substantial and significant Christian presence; all have inherited Confucian values. In the late 1990s, the labour force was 20 million with a participation rate of 62 per cent (76 per cent for males and 49 per cent for females), and unemployment was not much above 2 per cent; yet weekly working hours remained the longest for any country reported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The tight labour market has led to an increase in the employment of foreign workers, as it has in the other Asian NIEs.