The number of female workers in South Korea exceeded 10 million for the first time in 2011 due to the growing female population and a higher number of jobseekers among those supporting families, data showed Wednesday.

Female workers totaled 10.09 million at the end of last year, up 1.8 percent or 177,000 from a year earlier, according to the data provided by the finance ministry and Statistics Korea, South Korea's statistics agency.

The number of female workers has been rising since it exceeded 5 million in 1978. It topped 7 million and 8 million in 1989 and 1994, respectively, before surpassing 9 million in 2002.

A major factor behind the steady increase is the growing female population, experts said. The number of women over the age of 15 has expanded by more than 2 million over the past decade to 20.98 million, the data showed.

The increase might be also attributable to a growing number of women seeking to land a job to support their families struggling with the rising cost of living, they added.

In particular, those in their 50s showed the most notable increase in the working population. The number of women in the age group grew 6.8 percent on-year to a record high of 2.05 million last year.

This marked the first time that women in their 50s outnumbered those in their 20s in terms of working population. Female workers in their 20s totaled 1.92 million last year, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier.

Those in their 60s also saw their working population grow 5 percent on-year to 1.19 million. The expansion is attributable to more senior citizens seeking to find a job to support families or prepare for retirement. (Yonhap News)