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Today at the semi-annual Asian Economic Policy Review conference, Kim Byung-yeon presented the preliminary draft of a paper co-authored with Jeon Woo-taek, Jung Seung-ho, and Yu Shi-eun on the labor market experiences of female North Korean refugees in South Korea. The paper, based on a survey of the 2009 employment experiences of 289 women who arrived in South Korea in 2007, finds that both personal contacts and formal public employment networks contribute to finding a job, with personal contacts with South Koreans the most effective channel. Likewise, jobs found through South Korean contacts are associated with the highest wage rates. On average, the women in this sample make $6.03 an hour in their jobs; this is well above the South Korean minimum wage of $3.77, but noticeably less than the South Korean female average of $8.21 in 2009.
Beyond the employment search findings, the paper contains some other interesting results as well. Consistent with some of our earlier research (which Kim et al. kindly cite), a history of past traumatic experiences has a negative impact on success in the job market, and years of schooling in North Korea is unrelated to wages obtained from employment in the South.
Participants in the conference raised some questions about the paper and Kim et al. will be revising it in the coming months. Publication of this issue of the AEPR is expected in June 2012, so stay tuned.
