SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - The number of South Korean men staying out of the workforce to care for preschool children or manage household duties climbed to a record high in the first quarter, while the number of women doing the same fell to the lowest level since comparable data became available.
According to data released Monday by Statistics Korea through the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), 274,000 men were classified as economically inactive because of childcare or housework in the January-March period, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier.
It was the highest first-quarter figure since the current classification of the economically inactive population was introduced in 2004. The year-on-year increase was also the largest since 2021.
Of the total, 261,000 men cited housework as the reason for remaining outside the labor force, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, while 13,000 stayed home to care for preschool children or grandchildren, an increase of 16.8 percent.
The number of men devoted to childcare or housework has nearly doubled over the past two decades, rising from 151,000 in the first quarter of 2006. It first exceeded 200,000 in the first quarter of 2022.
In contrast, the number of economically inactive women engaged in childcare or housework fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 6.536 million, the lowest first-quarter level since 2004. The figure had peaked at 7.684 million in the first quarter of 2013 before gradually declining.
The trend suggests a gradual shift in traditional gender roles, with more men taking on caregiving and household responsibilities while more women remain in the workforce.
The increase may also reflect a growing number of women in high-paying professional occupations.
A report released in April by the Bank of Korea found that the ratio of economically active women aged 25 to 34 with four-year college degrees or higher to their male counterparts rose from 51.5 percent in 2002 to 95.5 percent last year.
Among young professionals, the number of employed women was nearly equal to that of men last year. In office jobs, employed women outnumbered men, with the female-to-male employment ratio reaching 113.8 percent, according to the report.
According to a September 2025 survey by South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, among dual-income couples, wives spent an average of 2 hours and 51 minutes per day on housework—including household chores and family caregiving—while husbands spent 59 minutes. This means that even in dual-income households, wives spent 112 minutes more on housework than their husbands.
Even in single-income households where only the wife was employed, wives spent 2 hours and 40 minutes on housework, 54 minutes more than husbands, who spent 1 hour and 46 minutes.
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