At the end of 1997, Korea was hit by a major financial and economic crisis, which resulted, among other things, in a huge rise in unemployment. The event caught the country’s labour and social institutions unprepared, so that many workers and their families were hit hard. The economy has now...

Over the past decade, the share of jobs not controlled by the state has increased considerably, whilst employment in agriculture has declined, against the backdrop of ongoing urbanisation. Over 200 million people have been drawn into urban areas through official or unofficial migration, despite...