By Choi Sung-jin



Successive governments have spent about 80 trillion won ($72 billion) tackling Korea's notoriously low birthrate over the past decade or so. Yet the nation's total fertility rate - the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime - barely rose, from 1.08 in 2005 to 1.24 last year.



A recent report shows some of the reasons for the extremely ineffective outcome.



Various government policies to jack up the fertility rate have produced few results because they failed to point out the root of the problem, said the report written by the Korean Women's Development Institute.



"As I am a part-time worker, I can hardly make long-term plans to have a family," the report quoted a female worker, 29, as saying. "Even if I get married, childbirth is almost unthinkable because few firms will employee alternative workers to give maternity leave to contract workers."



A man, 35, who is soon to be married, said: "The biggest reason I have put off my marriage was I couldn't get a house. The government's housing policy is not very effective for those who need homes most."



Policymakers, while not seriously accepting the reality that young people tend to avoid marriage and childbirth in the first place, have focused spending on bearing and rearing children, said the report, made at the request of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.



"As the reasons and circumstances for avoiding marriage and childbirth are different depending on sex and employment, the government is advised to offer custom-made policies to suit the segmented groups," it said.



The institute's research team, through an advanced study, cited two core reasons for the low birthrate - shortened child-bearing years due to the rise in the age of first marriage and delayed childbirth among women who have jobs and marry late in life. The first reason is attributed to job insecurity and housing problems and the second to maintaining careers and the burden of raising children.



However, existing government policies, such as free childcare, baby breaks and a flexible work system, mainly target groups who have children, the report said.



Of the total 37.7 trillion won the government spent on raising the fertility rate between 2011 and 2015, for instance, 34.8 trillion won, or 92 percent, was allocated to bearing and rearing children, with the other 2.7 trillion won spent on employment policy, the report said. Housing and educational policies were even implemented as non-budgetary projects, it said.



"The policy against low fertility has not sufficiently taken into account the younger generation's desire for policy support by failing to allot a budget to singles and couples who are yet to have their first baby," the report said. "The government has regarded the new social phenomenon of late marriage as the problem of individuals, failing to provide support from the aspect of jobs and housing."



Noting that within the younger generation, individuals have different problems and difficulties depending on their sex, employment and number of children, the report advised the government to come up with policy packages optimized for each group.



To propose specific alternatives, the research team divided 1,000 people aged 25-39 by their sex, marriage, employment and number of children into 10 groups of 100 people, and surveyed which policy each group needs most.



The unmarried group wanted an employment support policy most, asking the government to guarantee the security of their first jobs for at least five years and convert part-timers into full-time workers. The married group wanted the childcare leave system strengthened. Unmarried men showed the biggest interest in housing support, while married female workers called for better work-life balance by expanding daycare centers at companies. The unemployed group wanted the government to increase part-time jobs and expand childcare subsidies.



A Ministry of Health and Welfare official said: "By accepting the assessments of the first and second five-year plans, we reflected housing and employment policies in the third plan announced last December."



