#0126 Korea’s Soaring Suicide Rates: Gender Inequality and Work Stress to Be Blamed

Korea’s Soaring Suicide Rates: Gender Inequality and Work Stress to Be Blamed  

Suicide is the leading cause of death for the working population in Korea. The country also has a very large gender gap in the labor market, with more than 40% of “work-related” suicide fatalities in the recent decade, which is linked to remarkable discrepancies in the employment conditions of men and women in the same occupation.

With the compensation for suicide deaths relaxed after approval rates reaching as high as 80% in 2018, several questions have been raised about the factors that influence mortality in the country. In a previous report by the authors, suicide compensation cases were evaluated based on interpersonal disputes at work, but the deaths were not classified based on gender or employment.

To address this gap, in a new study, researchers from Hanyang University, Korea, examine the work-related stresses specific to the employment conditions and gender in Korea. They identified 413 reported suicide fatalities (90 percent men and 10% women) between 2010 and 2018, which were then categorized into 36 forms of work-related stress attributable to accidents, failure, poor quality, obligations, and conflicts.

They found that while both genders were equally affected by work-related stress, leading to highest age-standardized suicide rates among “managers”, more than half of men's suicides were caused by professional conflicts while that of women were caused by interpersonal reasons. Moreover, women committing suicide tended to be younger, unmarried and living alone, and were continuously employed for fewer years than men.

The study pinpoints how the working population in Korea is negatively impacted by workplace conditions and gender differences. This necessitates immediate intervention by the government to establish concrete guidelines for work duties and obligations.

Link to the original journal article:
https://academic.oup.com/joh/article/63/1/e12233/7249810

Title of the paper:
Occupation, work-related stress, and personal characteristics among suicide deaths with occupation-related compensation claims in Korea

Authors:
Jungwon Jang, Yangwoo Kim, Jaechul Song and Inah Kim

DOI:
10.1002/1348-9585.12233