The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it will reduce the working hours of its pregnant employees by one hour to give them more time for prenatal care.

The move comes as South Korea is struggling to raise its low birthrate through diverse incentives.

Pregnant female employees will be able to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. under the measure that is expected to be enforced later this month, according to the municipal government.

Since 2000, the local government has applied the same reduced working schedule to female employees with children under the age of one. Some 77 percent of these mothers are currently benefiting from the system, with the rest leaving their children in the care of their family members, municipal authorities said.

A total of some 150 female employees per year are now expected to work under the new schedule, equivalent to 5.5 percent of all female employees at the municipal government and its affiliated organizations.

South Korea has one of the world's lowest birthrates. The country's total fertility rate, which is the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime, stood at 1.15 as of 2009, lower than the average of 1.71 of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (Yonhap News)