Ratio of South Korean women rises to 46.5% in civil service
The ratio of women among South Korea’s civil servants reached 46.5 percent as of last year, marking a rise of 3.3 percentage points over 2013, government data released on Monday showed.
The Ministry of Personnel Management said that the nation had a total of 1,068,629 civil servants as of August last year, with an average age of 43 years old, en.yna.co.kr reported.
The government employees began their civil service at an average age of 27 and have stayed in the job for 16.2 years on average, according to the ministry’s census of civil servants, which has been conducted every five years.
As for the increase in the female ratio, the ministry explained that the ratio of successful female applicants has steadily increased for various civil service exams over the past five years.
The average time in the job for female civil servants has increased from 15.4 years in 2013 to 15.6 years last year.
The ratio of women among civil servants in their 50s and older also rose from 27.5 percent to 34.1 percent in the 2013-18 period, indicating that more women stated longer in the civil service.
Meanwhile, the ratio of civil servants who said they can speak English increased by 31.7 percent to 665,000, while the corresponding figures for Chinese and Japanese rose by 70.7 percent and 47.5 percent, respectively, to 54,000 and 115,000.
The ministry said 54.2 percent of the civil servants were college graduates, with another 21.8 percent having degrees from graduate schools.
Promotion from ninth grade to fifth grade took an average of 24.4 years as of last year, down by 0.8 years from 2013. The nation’s civil service has nine grades, with grade nine being the lowest.
They had an average of 1.88 children, down slightly from 1.94 five years ago. On off days, they spend their leisure time watching TV (18.8 percent), participating in sports (14.9 percent) and taking a rest or a walk (14.5 percent).