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The growth of non‐standard employment in Japan and South Korea: the role of institutional actors and impact on workers and the labour market
Author(s) -
Cooke Fang Lee,
Jiang Yumei
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1111/1744-7941.12138
Subject(s) - workforce , labour economics , job creation , scale (ratio) , sustainability , economics , development economics , business , economic growth , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
A key trend in the development of the global economy is the informalisation of employment. A number of studies have emerged that capture the growth and characteristics of non‐standard employment in Japan and South Korea as two major world economies that are experiencing relative decline in growth. However, limited is understood in the role of institutional actors in shaping the labour markets and how these two neighbouring countries may, despite similarities, differ in terms of forms of non‐standard employment and the institutional and cultural reasons that underpin the differences. This review study fills part of the gap by providing a systematic analysis of changes in the labour market in Japan and South Korea, the role of institutional actors in shaping the informal labour market, patterns of non‐standard employment and its impacts on individual workers as well as the development of the labour market. The paper concludes that informalisation has led to the decline of job quality on a relatively large scale in these two countries and that a greater level of state intervention is necessary to maintain workforce well‐being and economic sustainability.