Changes and Challenges in Women’s Work before and after the COVID-19

Kong Ju
Research Fellow, Seoul Foundation of Women & Family

Won Hyebin
Researcher, Seoul Foundation of Women & Family

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) has plunged the world into an economic crisis, and its impacts on women have worsened across the board since they are more exposed to hard-hit economic sectors(UN Women, 2020). Seoul has also faced a labor market crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the crisis, the Seoul Metropolitan Government(SMG) and the Central Government(CG) of South Korea have actively come up with several policy measures to help mitigate the effects. However, gender perspective is not sufficiently considered within the policy design. Thus, this research aims to explore impacts of the pandemic on the women’s workforce in Seoul, and to propose alternative policies based on gender perspective to alleviate the hardship for women in the labor market in Seoul.

Three research methods are applied in this research: firstly, a literature analysis on previous economic crises in Korea and current labor policies related to the COVID-19 of SMG and CG; secondly, statistical analyses on women in the workforce of Seoul with three different data-sets: a main data-set, 「Local Area Labour Force Survey」 by Statistics Korea, with two complementary data-sets 「Employment Administration Statistics」by Korea Employment Information Service(KEIS) and 「Work Life Changes of COVID-19」by a labor NGO, Jigjanggabjil119; Lastly, experts’ advise on research design and new directions in SMG’s policy for women in the workforce.

From the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, SMG and CG have been actively responding to the COVID-19 induced labor crisis with major policy measures of ⓐ employment maintenance subsidy, ⓑ income support for freelancers and workers in special types of employment, and ⓒ expanding public jobs for the unemployed. However, there are four more points to be considered within the policy responses. First, at present, the government support is not being provided in proportion to the extent of the damage. Second, since the support still remain in short-term, government-led countermeasures from long-term perspective should also be prepared. Third, gender is hardly considered in the policy design. Forth, in the policy scheme, such policies are not yet covered to build safer work environment for and to promote the occupational health and safety rights of workers.

Also, the results of statistical analyses can be summarized into six categories. First, the impact of the decline in jobs and income due to the spread of COVID-19 has focused on women in the workforce in Seoul. It is notable that women’s unemployment rate during the COVID-19 crisis is much higher than the previous crises, so that employment services for the unemployed should be strengthened. Second, the COVID-19 induced employment shock has concentrated on young women. Special employment-related measures for young women are required. Third, the decline in the number of employed after the pandemic was concentrated on precarious jobs before the pandemic. Considering that changes in freelancers or workers in special types of employment could not be accounted in this research due to data limitations, it is estimated that the COVID-19 induced employment shock exerted on precarious jobs is even greater. We need a newly formed data of economically active population that can cover new types of work. Forth, gender occupational and industrial segregation have intensified in Seoul after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to diversify the distribution of women’s occupations and industries, and increase the representation of women in the high-tech sector. Fifth, the gender wage gap has slightly decreased for a year, but it is still high(34.6%). It requires an elaborate policy plan to advance women into occupations and industries where the average incomes for women are high and women are underrepresented. Sixth, we investigated a high demand for policies to promote safer working conditions and to strengthen the social safety net among Seoul citizens.

In conclusion, two policy goals for SMG are proposed based on these findings. The first policy goal, as a short-term goal, is “to overcome the women’s labor market crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and expand decent jobs for women”, and the second policy goal, as a mid- to long-term goal, is “to reduce gender inequality in the labor market and to promote safer workplace conditions”. We also propose five main strategies: first, creating many decent jobs for women in public and private sectors; second, enhancing responsiveness by labor life cycle; third, expanding support for employments and entrepreneurships in promising professional fields for the future; forth, establishment of work safety standards and expansion of paid sick leave; fifth, building foundations for understanding changes in the labor market.

Lastly 13 major policy tasks are suggested: ① creating public jobs in the expanding fields of COVID-19 related services, ② reinforcement of counseling for the unemployed and of support for their job mobility, ③ promoting recruitments of women through internships and strengthening cooperation with enterprises, ④ reinforcing support for young women at the school-to-work transition stage, ⑤ strengthening assistance for career maintenance for women in service, and providing customized in-service training for them, ⑥ reinforcement of policies to reduce the gender wage gap, ⑦ providing vocational trainings of new technologies in such areas as the digital economy, ⑧ promoting green entrepreneurship to realize carbon neutrality in 2050, ⑨ investigating working conditions of female-dominated small workplaces and development of policies to improve the conditions, ⑩ establishment of labor safety standards for face-to-face in-person service, ⑪ expanding the Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave, ⑫ conducting Seoul Economically Active Population Survey on a regular basis: gender-sensitive data collection, ⑬ establishing an administrative system for estimating an amount of damage during economic crises and a damage support standard.

*Key words: The COVID-19 and Women in the Labor Market in Seoul, Changes of Women’s Work after the COVID-19 Pandemic, The COVID-19 induced Labor Market Crisis, Seoul’s Policy Responses to the COVID-19