Six in 10 Korean women have experienced a career break, a government survey showed. Women who quit their jobs due to pregnancy and childbirth took 7.5 years to find employment again.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released the "2025 Survey on Women's Economic Activity and Career Interruption" containing these findings Tuesday. The government has conducted the survey every three years since 2013. Following the implementation of the revised Women's Economic Activity Act in 2022, the survey expanded its target from women aged 25 to 54 to those aged 19 to 54.
According to the survey, 56.7% of women experienced a career break at some point in their lives. Working conditions—including wages, workload, contract expiration, business closures, forced resignations, and layoffs—were the most common reason at 53.4%. Career breaks due to marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth followed at 29.3%. Women who experienced both causes accounted for 17.3%.
Women who left work due to marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth took a particularly long time to return to the labor market. Career breaks caused by working conditions took an average of 1.7 years until reemployment, while those caused by marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth took an average of 7.5 years. The rate of returning to work after using parental leave stood at only 46.9%. Reasons cited for not returning included "lack of a trustworthy caregiver" (34.1%) and "difficulty balancing childcare and work" (27.8%).
The quality of jobs after reemployment also deteriorated. In the first job obtained after a career break due to marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth, the share of part-time work increased while weekly working hours decreased. The proportion of part-time workers rose from 7.2% at the time of the career break to 26.8% after reemployment, while average weekly working hours fell from 41.9 hours to 35.7 hours.
Workplace size and occupation types also changed. The proportion of women working at businesses with fewer than 10 employees was 39.3% at the time of the career break but rose sharply to 52.7% after reemployment. Real wages remained at 80% of pre-break levels. The share of office and professional jobs decreased, while service and manual labor jobs increased.
The biggest difficulty in the job search process was "lack of time for job-seeking activities due to childcare." Women aged 50 to 54 reported a relatively higher rate of lacking confidence in adapting to society compared with other age groups.
The highest policy demand for preventing career breaks was "strengthening work-life balance and expanding childcare infrastructure." Women aged 19 to 34 selected "provision of diverse job and career information" (33.0%) and "career path and planning counseling" (30.4%) as the support needed for career planning.
"Women's employment policy needs to shift beyond simple job placement support toward lifelong career management and support for sustainable economic activity," Gender Equality Minister Won Min-kyung said. "We will strengthen customized vocational training and preemptive career management support, and spare no effort to spread a workplace culture that enables work-life balance."
