31 December 2025
A wellbeing-based approach to analysing ‘bad jobs’ in South Korea
This paper in The Economic and Labour Relations Review explores job quality in South Korea, using a wellbeing-based approach to define ‘bad jobs’. The researchers analysed the Korean Working Conditions Survey (2014-2023) data to identify the connection between job quality and worker wellbeing.
While the rate of bad jobs has declined in the period, there was a proliferation of non-standard and non-regular jobs after the 2008 financial crash, disproportionately affecting women, the young and the old.
The study uses seven dimensions of defining job quality; earnings, prospects, skills and discretion, work intensity, social environment, physical environment and working time quality.
The analysis demonstrates discontinuity in the marginal effects of job quality on wellbeing for workers in the bottom ten percent, where improvements yield greater wellbeing gains for those workers moving above this level.
Read the full report on Bad Jobs in South Korea.
While the rate of bad jobs has declined in the period, there was a proliferation of non-standard and non-regular jobs after the 2008 financial crash, disproportionately affecting women, the young and the old.
The study uses seven dimensions of defining job quality; earnings, prospects, skills and discretion, work intensity, social environment, physical environment and working time quality.
The analysis demonstrates discontinuity in the marginal effects of job quality on wellbeing for workers in the bottom ten percent, where improvements yield greater wellbeing gains for those workers moving above this level.
Read the full report on Bad Jobs in South Korea.
0 Comments
CDI urges families to ask "what is your school providing?" as Res...
As Level 3 and GCSE Results Days approach, CDI is calling on families to ask their child's school what careers support is on offer - before, on an...
11 August 2026
CDI launch new resources on Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs...
Two new resources on Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) have been launched as part of the Technical Education Programme.
06 August 2026
