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As Regions Empty Out, Koreans Point to ‘No Good Jobs’ as the Root Cause

As Regions Empty Out, Koreans Point to ‘No Good Jobs’ as the Root Cause

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — As demographic decline accelerates across South Korea, a new national survey suggests that a lack of appealing jobs is the single most important reason people are leaving regional areas — and choosing not to raise children there. The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) released the findings Thursday [...]

Seoul Ends Pilot Discussions on How AI Will Transform Labor in IT, Media and Law

Seoul Ends Pilot Discussions on How AI Will Transform Labor in IT, Media and Law

SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (National AI Strategy Committee) has wrapped up a series of structured deliberation sessions designed to assess how artificial intelligence will reshape professional roles and employment, the committee said Tuesday. The talks, held between late October and early December, brought together practitioners [...]

Coupang Data Breach Raises Scrutiny of Foreign Developer Hiring, Including Large China-Based Teams

Coupang Data Breach Raises Scrutiny of Foreign Developer Hiring, Including Large China-Based Teams

SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is facing intensifying scrutiny after a major data leak revealed that significant portions of its Korean-language service were built and maintained by foreign developers, including sizable teams based in China. The primary suspect in the breach is a former Chinese employee who worked on the [...]

Gender Pay Gap Persists at Korea’s Major Brokerages Despite Gradual Improvement

Gender Pay Gap Persists at Korea’s Major Brokerages Despite Gradual Improvement

SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Korea Bizwire) —  South Korea’s top securities firms have narrowed their gender pay gaps over the past five years, but disparities remain substantial, according to regulatory filings released on Sunday. Semiannual reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service show that the average first-half salary at the country’s 10 largest brokerages reached 103.5 million [...]

Public Backlash Grows Ahead of Talks on Possible Ban of Dawn Delivery Services

Public Backlash Grows Ahead of Talks on Possible Ban of Dawn Delivery Services

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A public petition opposing a potential ban on South Korea’s popular dawn delivery services surpassed 25,000 signatures on Thursday, one day before a government-labor-industry dialogue committee is set to meet for a third round of discussions on the issue. The petition, filed by a self-described working mother, argues that overnight [...]

Youth Face Longer Job Searches, With Regional Gap Widening, Study Finds

Youth Face Longer Job Searches, With Regional Gap Widening, Study Finds

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean young adults are taking significantly longer to land their first full-time job, with those living outside the Seoul metropolitan area facing a growing disadvantage, according to new government research released Thursday. A study by the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) found that the average job-search period for young [...]

As Job Security Fades, More Middle-Aged Turn to Professional Certifications

As Job Security Fades, More Middle-Aged Turn to Professional Certifications

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — What once felt like the plot of a workplace drama is increasingly echoing real life for many middle-aged South Koreans. In the popular series The Dream Life of Mr.Kim  (the story of manager Kim working at a large company in Seoul), a seemingly secure executive finds himself abruptly sidelined and [...]

Korea’s Seniors Work into Their 70s as Pension System Falls Short

Korea’s Seniors Work into Their 70s as Pension System Falls Short

SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea now has the highest employment rate among seniors in the OECD, a trend driven less by choice than by economic hardship as the country enters an era of rapid population aging. A report released Wednesday by Oh Yoo-jin, a researcher at the National Pension Research Institute, shows that [...]

Korea Moves to Replace Civil Service ‘Duty of Obedience’ With Protections Against Unlawful Orders

Korea Moves to Replace Civil Service ‘Duty of Obedience’ With Protections Against Unlawful Orders

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing to abolish a decades-old legal requirement obligating civil servants to obey orders from their superiors, a cornerstone of the country’s bureaucratic culture since 1949. The move marks one of the most significant shifts in public-sector governance in more than half a century. The Ministry of Personnel [...]

Inequality ‘Built Into the System’: Study Highlights Structural Fault Lines in Korea’s Labor Market

Inequality ‘Built Into the System’: Study Highlights Structural Fault Lines in Korea’s Labor Market

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Korea Bizwire) —  A large majority of South Korean workers say the country’s labor market is fundamentally unequal, reflecting long-standing structural divides between large conglomerates and smaller firms, according to new research presented at a major labor conference in Seoul on Tuesday. The survey, released at the 30th-anniversary forum of the Federation [...]