The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the structural change of labor market on occupational sex segregation. That is, considering that Korean labor market has rapidly changed since its economic crisis in 1997, this study focuses...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the structural change of labor market on occupational sex segregation. That is, considering that Korean labor market has rapidly changed since its economic crisis in 1997, this study focuses on analyzing to what extent its change has an effect on occupational segregation by sex For example, when labor market is divided into standard workforce and non-standard workforce, occupational sex segregation has declined in standard workforce, but has risen in non-standard workforce. In this context, this study particularly focuses on comparing female labor of standard work with non-standard work in the change of female-dominated occupations and male-dominated ones.
To explore this relationship, this study reviews some new approaches to analyzing the influence of social change on occupational segregation, such as Hakim's study(1993) and Blackwell's study(2001), and some internal studies on the change of Korean labor market since its economic crisis. And to show its relationship empirically, this study uses the data of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(1998, 1999, 2001). In this study occupational sex segregation was measured by classifying one of three groups such as male-dominated, female-dominated, and mixed occupation. And the main independent variable, the status of workers was classified into two groups such as standard worker and non-standard worker according to respondents' subjective evaluation.
From empirical analysis, this study finds as follows;
First of all, the overall level of occupational segregation has declined. This results is the sum of two opposit trends which largely cancel out. That is, occupational segregation in standard workforce has continuously declined. However, occupational segregation in non-standard workforce has risen since 1999. From this finding, this study concluded that the change of Korean labor market, the increase of non-standard workers contributed to the increase of occupational sex segregation in non-standard labor market.