Number of S. Korean househusbands surges in 5 years

The number of full-time stay-at-home dads in South Korea has jumped over the past five years as more women enter the workforce, replacing men in many professional jobs, data showed Wednesday.

   The number of househusbands, who stay at home to do household chores, totaled 156,000 at the end of last year, up 34.5 percent from 116,000 in 2005, according to the data offered by Statistics Korea.

   The stay-at-home dads are not counted as jobless since they belong to "economically inactive" population. The number of economically inactive men came to 5.35 million last year, up 13.1 percent from five years ago, the data showed.

   Experts said that the increase in househusbands is due to a growing number of women entering professional jobs over the past years, replacing men in these areas and leaving household chores to their husbands.

   The data showed that the number of women staying at home to raise their children totaled 1.46 million last year, down 1.9 percent from 2005.

   During the same period, the number of women staying home to do housework grew 9.6 percent to 5.11 million but the growth rate was far slower than the 34.5 percent increase for their male counterparts, according to the data. (Yonhap News)