In the past five years, labor spent on child care has decreased, while labor spent on adult care has increased. Due to "low birthrate and aging," the focus of unpaid care is shifting from children to adults and older people.
The Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) on the 23rd released data titled "2024 National Time Transfer Accounts — Intergenerational distribution of the value of unpaid household labor." The statistics convert the value of intangible "household labor" into economic value using time, population, and replacement wages, and analyze every five years how patterns appear by life cycle and generation. This is being published for the first time this year and includes results for 2019 and 2024.
◇ Help with household labor: children receive less, older people receive more
In 2024, the total production value of "caring for minors" within all household labor was 98.4 trillion won, down 1.8% (1.8 trillion won) from 2019. In contrast, the production value of "caring for adults" was 15.2 trillion won, up 20.8% (2.6 trillion won).
In particular, the production value of adult care increased among those ages 45-54, 55-64, and the older population (65 and older). Notably, adult care production by the older population surged to 4.5 trillion won, up 53.9% from five years earlier. As the term "older-to-older care" suggests, contributions to adult care within the older population have grown.
A similar pattern appears in the "life-cycle surplus (deficit)," calculated by subtracting production from consumption of household labor. A larger surplus means doing more household labor; a smaller surplus or a deficit means receiving more help from others' household labor. The household labor surplus for the older population was 8.3 trillion won, down from a surplus of 9.2 trillion won five years ago. By contrast, children posted a household labor deficit of 116.6 trillion won, narrowing from a deficit of 124.2 trillion won five years ago.
This means children received less help with household labor, while older people received more. As a result, the share of children in household labor consumption was 20%, down 5.5 percentage points from five years earlier, while the share for older people rose 5.8 percentage points to 22.3%. Over five years, the share of older people in household labor consumption surpassed that of children.
◇ Household labor does not retire after retirement… "Increase in older people caring for grandchildren"
Low birthrate and aging are also changing an individual's life-cycle household labor production pattern. Per-capita household labor production peaked at 18.77 million won at age 40, then declined, and began rising again in the mid-50s, showing an "M-shaped" structure.
An official at the data agency said, "After retirement, time spent at home increases and caring for grandchildren is added, so unpaid household labor rises again among the older population." In fact, the amount of household labor produced by the older population for "caring for minors" was 5.4 trillion won, up 21.2% from five years earlier.
By gender, men produced a maximum of 9.77 million won per person in household labor at age 39, then declined, before rising again in their 50s and hitting a second peak at age 74 (8.56 million won). Women produced a maximum at age 40 (28.48 million won), then declined and rebounded to a second peak at age 65 (22.09 million won). The second-peak ages for men and women increased by three years and one year, respectively, from five years ago.
An official at the data agency said, "As the share of one-person and single-generation households among the older population (70%) grows, there is more household management labor that must be done independently with age," adding, "On top of that, activities caring for grandchildren who live separately are continuing, so we are closely watching the trend in unpaid household labor among the older population."