Korea's birthrate decline getting out of hand
There was some more depressing news about Korea's plunging birthrate this week. The latest Statistics Korea report showed that the number of newborns fell below 200,000 in the first half of the year. There were only 188,500 babies born between January and June, down 12.3 percent from the same period last year.
The outlook for the second half is also bleak as the number of newborns tends to be lower in November and December. Officials expected that the figure for the entire year could be lower than 400,000 for the first time ever. The downward trend in the birthrate is likely to persist as more Koreans choose not to marry.
Despite the grave repercussions of the low birthrate on the nation's society and economy, the Moon Jae-in government has not properly responded to the unprecedented baby crisis.
President Moon is aiming to raise the birthrate to 1.4 children per woman in the next five years. For this, the government recently announced that it will provide 100,000 won in childcare allowance for families with children under five years old starting July 2018. This kind of short-sighted program is laughable from the perspective of a mother struggling with a job, childcare and household chores. It will have little effect in convincing women to have more children.
One of the first things Moon should have done after taking office was to establish a ministry for dealing with population issues as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did a few years ago to turn around his country's falling birthrate. Due to such efforts, Japan's birthrate has been climbing, recording its highest birthrate in 21 years last year with 1.46 children per woman.
With one of the lowest birthrates in the world at 1.12, Korea urgently needs a new ministry to serve as a control tower for policies regarding babies, mothers and families.
The government has spent more than 100 trillion won on programs to promote the birthrate over the last 10 years, but it has continued to fall. The absence of a control tower has hampered the effectiveness of programs aimed at boosting the birthrate, as they have been scattered among various ministries. Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Thursday that he will consider establishing a department for population issues in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, but this will not be enough.
It is also important for the corporate sector to get behind family-first policies. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shared his plan to take two months of paternity leave when his second child is born later this year in a recent Facebook post. Korean CEOs should encourage childcare leaves for moms and dads to create a more family-friendly workplace and promote a work-life balance.
There was some more depressing news about Korea's plunging birthrate this week. The latest Statistics Korea report showed that the number of newborns fell below 200,000 in the first half of the year. There were only 188,500 babies born between January and June, down 12.3 percent from the same period last year.
The outlook for the second half is also bleak as the number of newborns tends to be lower in November and December. Officials expected that the figure for the entire year could be lower than 400,000 for the first time ever. The downward trend in the birthrate is likely to persist as more Koreans choose not to marry.
Despite the grave repercussions of the low birthrate on the nation's society and economy, the Moon Jae-in government has not properly responded to the unprecedented baby crisis.
President Moon is aiming to raise the birthrate to 1.4 children per woman in the next five years. For this, the government recently announced that it will provide 100,000 won in childcare allowance for families with children under five years old starting July 2018. This kind of short-sighted program is laughable from the perspective of a mother struggling with a job, childcare and household chores. It will have little effect in convincing women to have more children.
One of the first things Moon should have done after taking office was to establish a ministry for dealing with population issues as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did a few years ago to turn around his country's falling birthrate. Due to such efforts, Japan's birthrate has been climbing, recording its highest birthrate in 21 years last year with 1.46 children per woman.
With one of the lowest birthrates in the world at 1.12, Korea urgently needs a new ministry to serve as a control tower for policies regarding babies, mothers and families.
The government has spent more than 100 trillion won on programs to promote the birthrate over the last 10 years, but it has continued to fall. The absence of a control tower has hampered the effectiveness of programs aimed at boosting the birthrate, as they have been scattered among various ministries. Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Thursday that he will consider establishing a department for population issues in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, but this will not be enough.
It is also important for the corporate sector to get behind family-first policies. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shared his plan to take two months of paternity leave when his second child is born later this year in a recent Facebook post. Korean CEOs should encourage childcare leaves for moms and dads to create a more family-friendly workplace and promote a work-life balance.
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