Labour market dualization, permanent insecurity and fertility: The case of ultra-low fertility in South Korea

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between labour market dualization, insecurity and low fertility, through a case study of South Korea, which presents an extreme case of an ultra-low fertility, where the total fertility rate fell to 0.84 in 2020. It is argued that the longterm nature of the insecurity associated with dualization, as well as the importance of people’s perceptions of present and future insecurity, mark dualization out as a particular phenomenon, whose impact on fertility current demographic approaches struggle to fully understand. Rather than restricting the focus to the education-employment transition, we show that how permanent insecurity in highly dualized labour markets depresses fertility.