Young Women Overtake Men in Job Market

Women in their 20s have overtaken their male counterparts for the first time in terms of employment.

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According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, the so-called labor-force participation rate among 20-something women stood at 62.9 percent last year, 0.3 percentage points higher than the 62.6 percent for their male counterparts.

This is the first time since statistics started that a bigger proportion of young women than young men have jobs.

One reason is that women are becoming more competitive while men are delaying their first attempt to find jobs due to the job market crunch and mandatory military service.

Women also outpaced men for the fourth year in terms of college enrollment.

But among people in their 30s, the proportion of women who have jobs is still far lower than that of men at 56 percent as against 93.3 percent. This is because in this age group, many women quit their jobs as they get married and have babies.