Most Tired Koreans Are Young Working Mothers

Married women in their 30s with a college or higher education, preschool children and jobs are the most tired Koreans, a survey suggests. The more of the categories they come under, the more tired they feel.

In the survey of 27,000 people last year published by Statistics Korea on Thursday, eight out of 10 people or 79.3 percent said they are tired after a day's work.

More women than men complained of tiredness with 80.7 percent versus 77.9 percent, and marginally more married people with 81.4 percent than singles with 80 percent.

The difference was naturally greater between people with jobs, 87.5 percent of whom complained of tiredness, than unemployed people with 68.1 percent, and more people with preschool kids at a whopping 93.9 percent than those without at 78 percent.

Those in their 30s were the most tired with 90.5 percent, followed by those in their 40s (87.7 percent), 50s (81.3 percent), and 20s (80.9 percent). People with college or higher education were also more tired with 83.9 percent than those with only a high school diploma (80 percent) or less (77 percent). 

But when respondents were asked to identify the main cause of tiredness, child rearing made up only a small proportion. The biggest cause of tiredness was work-related stress with 50.5 percent. Next came health with 15.5 percent, study for self-improvement with 12 percent, housework with 6.8 percent, and child rearing with a surprisingly small 6.5 percent.

Koreans over 15 worked a daily average of six hours and 41 minutes, down 11 minutes from five years earlier. Kang Yoo-kyung at Statistics Korea said, "Working hours declined probably as a result of the 52-hour working week introduced in 2018 and increasing emphasis on work-life balance."

The time earned from shortened working hours seems to have been used to catch up on sleep rather than leisure activities. Time for leisure activities actually decreased by two minutes, while sleeping time increased by 13 minutes to eight hours and 12 minutes.

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