Seoul: About 1.45 million South Korean married women suffered a career break in the first half mainly due to child-rearing, statistical office data showed Tuesday.
The number of married women aged 15-54 who experienced career discontinuation was 1,448,000 in the first half, down 57,000 from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
Such women accounted for 17.4 per cent of the country’s total married women in the first half, down 0.2 percentage points from a year ago.
The decline was mainly attributable to the continued slide in marriages, which was caused by a growing social trend to delay marriage and refrain from having a baby amid a higher housing price and a higher cost to bring up children.
Among the total married women who stopped working, 43.2 per cent said they went through career discontinuity to rear children.
It was followed by 27.4 per cent for marriage, 22.1 per cent for pregnancy and childbirth, and 3.8 per cent for children education.
Meanwhile, the number of married women aged 15-54 totalled 8,323,000 in the first half.
Among the total, the number of married women who were unemployed was 3,240,000.
