During the past one year, the size of contingent workers reached 6.4 million due to the rapid increase of 240,000 part-time workers.
The proportion of contingent workers out of the total wage and salaried workers climbed up for two consecutive years. The wage gap between regular and contingent workers widened and the dual structure of labor market appeared to be further perpetuated than ever before.
According to the economically active population survey(August 2016)by the Statistics Korea, the number of wage and salaried workers increased to 19,627,000, an increase of 315,000(up 1.6%) year on year in the same period.
The number of regular workers was 13,183,000(67.2%), while the number of contingent workers reached 6,444,000(32.8%)
The increase rate of contingent workers for the past three years is noticeable. During the past one year, contingent workers soared up by 173,000, while regular workers increased only by 142,000. The size of contingent workers exceeded 6.4 million for the first time since the year 2000.
The rate of contingent workers ascended from 32.4 percent in August 2014 to 32.5 percent in August 2015 and 32.8 percent in August 2016.
The number of part-time workers increased by 11 percent(the increase of 247,000) to 2,483,000 from 2,236,000 compared to the same period last year. The average work hours per week for the part-time workers are about 20 hours.
The average monthly wage of regular workers was 2,795,000 won(US$ 2,443), whereas the contingent workers are paid the average monthly wage of 1,494,000 won(US$ 1,306) in August this year.
The wage increase rate for the regular workers was 3.7 percent, but for the contingent workers it was only 1.8 percent.
The social insurance subscription rate also shows the gap between the regular and contingent workers. The social insurance subscription rates for wage and salaried workers are; national pension(67.6%), health care(72.6%), employment insurance(69.6%).
However, for the contingent workers, the rates were far below the average; national pension(36.3%), health care(44.8%), employment insurance(42.8%).
reported by Kim Bong-soek
translated by Kim sung-jin