장기인구성장과 노동력 수급 전망

Impact of Population Growth on Labor Force and Employment in Korea; Transition and Prospect

Three stages of population growth during last forty years affected differently to the labor force and employment in Korea. The first impact of rapid population growth on the labor force occured after the end of World War II. Sudden growth of population due to repartriation and refugees directly increased the labor force. Deteriorating labor market conditions were caused not only by the explosive labor supply but also by the shortage of employment opportunities due to a lack of productive facilities. This severe excess supply of labor continued until the early 196Os. Population growth in the second stage which caused by high fertility during the post Korean War baby boom period induced an eventual increase in the labor supply with time lag of more than fifteen years. Younger persons born during baby boom period were flooded the labor market. Fortunately, job opportunities were expanded more rapidly than the labor force supply because high rates of economic growth and speedy industrialization were continued until the later half of 1970s. Unemployment, therefore, decreased dramatically during this period. The effect of third stage which is characterized as mitigated population growth due to birth control has appeared in the labor market since late 1970s. The growth rate of labor force has been going down and the proportion of younger workers was also been decreasing. From the early 1980s, furthermore, partial disharmony between supply of and demand for the younger workers is closing up. Less educated younger workers who works at low wage are lacking while more educated youngers who want to work at high wage are being excess, because a lot of younger prefer higher education rather than productive job. It is expected that the structural inharmony will be diversified in the future in Korea. The labor force will be changed to middleaged, highly educated and womenized till year 2000, and, after then, to old-aged. On the demand side, industries and jobs will transferred to be labor-saving and soft. These structural changes of labor supply and demand will not matching in time. Aggregate supply of labor force will be steadily increasing more rapidly than aggregate demand for labor until year 2000, and this trend will continue to the first one or two decades of the 2lth century because the persons born dufing the baby boom pariod are being eligible couples in recent. Therefore, conclusion is that appropriate manpower development policy as well as sustained birth control policy is necessary for harmonizing the structural unbalance and the disequilibrium between aggregate labor supply and demand in the future.