SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea weighs proposals for a shorter workweek and extended retirement age, a growing number of companies are already adopting flexible schedules — in some cases reducing hours to just four days — in what could become a model for broader labor market reform. Major firms including SK [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — A silent, vacant look from younger workers — dubbed the “Gen Z Stare” — is rattling South Korean campuses and offices, becoming a flashpoint in the country’s ongoing debate over generational communication. The term, which fuses “Gen Z” with “stare,” describes the expressionless gaze of young people born between [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — For the first time, older workers now make up a larger share of full-time employees at South Korea’s major corporations than younger recruits, underscoring the deepening generational divide in the country’s labor market. A report released Sunday by the Korea Employers Federation found that employees aged 55 to 59 in [...]
JEJU, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — A Netflix animated feature has unexpectedly cast a centuries-old Korean craft into the global limelight. In K-Pop Demon Hunters, the boy band “Saja Boys,” rivals of the girl group protagonists, don traditional hats known as gat — and audiences worldwide have taken notice. One character’s performance, twirling a gat’s [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – In a nation often described as a “coffee republic,” South Koreans are increasingly reaching for decaffeinated brews, reshaping menus and fueling new debates about caffeine’s role in daily life. On a busy avenue in central Seoul, a café recently advertised only decaf coffee on a large signboard — a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s gender wage gap at publicly listed companies grew wider last year, even as the gap in average tenure between men and women narrowed, according to new government data. An analysis of 2,980 corporate annual reports for 2024, released Friday by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Once regarded as isolated personal misfortunes, “lonely deaths” — people dying alone and unnoticed — are increasingly being understood in South Korea as symptoms of systemic failure. A government-commissioned study released Friday portrays the phenomenon as a “social disaster” demanding urgent intervention. According to the report, prepared by the Korea [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Democratic Party on Friday unveiled plans to impose far heavier financial penalties on media outlets for publishing false or manipulated reports, vowing to pass the legislation before the Chuseok holiday on Oct. 6. At a press briefing, the party’s special committee on media reform said it would [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new culture minister offered a stark warning on Thursday, saying that behind the glittering image of K-pop, K-drama and other cultural exports lies a fragile industry infrastructure at risk of collapse. At his first press conference since taking office, Choi Hwi-young, minister of culture, sports and tourism, said he [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s efforts to rescue its collapsing essential medical system by sharply raising reimbursements for high-risk surgeries have failed to halt the sector’s decline, new government data show. Even with more generous payments, essential care still accounts for less than 20 percent of total medical spending, while pediatric and obstetric [...]