SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean men's paternity leave posted a double-digit growth last year on the spread of a social trend to let fathers bear more child-rearing burden, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of employees, who took child-care leave, was 99,199 in 2018, up 10.1 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.
The number for men's paternity leave jumped 46.7 percent over the year to 17,662 last year, while the reading for women's maternity leave grew 4.4 percent to 81,537.
The paternity leave continued to rise at a faster pace as fathers were increasingly taking more responsibility to raise children.
Asked about which one between work and home life is prioritized, 44.2 percent said both are of significance to the similar extent. Those who prioritize work rather than family life declined to 42.1 percent.
Weekly working hours averaged 41.5 hours in 2018, down from 42.8 in the previous year.
The average working hours have been on the decline amid the social trend to strike a balance between work and personal life.
The government launched a policy last July to diminish the maximum number of weekly working hours to 52 from the previous 68.
