The Relationship Between the Unemployment Rate and the Birth Rate in Korea

Through this research, I have looked at the relationship between the unemployment rate and the birth rate with a focus in Korea. For past few decades, despite the high volume of students obtaining undergraduate degrees, the unemployment rate has constantly increased, bringing about a critical social issue. On the other hand, families have been giving birth to fewer children or no child at all despite the government’s efforts to financially aid parents to raise their children. Because of this phenomenon, a new term called ‘Sampo generation’ has emerged, describing people in their 20s and 30s giving up on three things since they can’t economically support themselves: dating, marriage, and giving birth. It has been discovered that the unemployment rate has negative correlation with the birth rate although the labor participation rate has a stronger relationship with the fertility rate. With larger unemployment, the birth rate is decreased whereas with larger participation rate, the number of babies born is increased. Also, interestingly, the effect of unemployment and education are often the opposite for females and males. As people earn more money, however, they postpone their chances of having a child or more although its negative correlation is explained away by education. Lastly, Conservatives have more children than Democrats and Independents and considering the historical and cultural differences between regions, the political affiliations were regarded as proxies for indicating regions that have higher or lower birth rates. However, it has been found that whether the region is relatively urban or rural is a stronger factor determining the birth rates than the political perspectives.