Job instability in the Korean labour market: Estimating the effects of the 1997 financial crisis

To assess the impact of the Asian financial crisis on job stability in the Republic of Korea, the authors examine changes in average tenure, the proportion of short-tenured workers and job-retention rates from the mid- to late-1990s using household survey data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Survey. For a comparative perspective, their findings are also discussed in the light of similar indicators of the United States' labour market. The 1997 financial crisis turns out to have had a particularly adverse impact on the job stability of workers in non-standard employment, women and longer-tenured, less-educated and older workers.