Statistics Korea data on Tuesday showed that 1.45 million South Korean married women, suffered a career break in the first half mainly due to child-rearing.
The statistical office data showed that 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.
It said such women accounted for 17.4 percent 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 number of married women who stopped working, 43.2 percent said they went through career discontinuity to rear children.
It was followed by 27.4 percent for marriage, 22.1 percent for pregnancy and childbirth, and 3.8 percent for children’s education.
Meanwhile, the number of married women aged 15-54 totaled 8,323,000 in the first half.
Among the total, the number of married women who were unemployed was 3,240,000, the statistic showed.
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