SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — About 1 in 20 young people in Seoul live in isolation or seclusion from society due mainly to difficulties in finding a job or mental problems, a survey by the city government showed Wednesday. An estimated 4.5 percent, or about 129,000, of Seoul residents aged between 19-39 were surveyed [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreign workers filing taxes in South Korea for 2021 income fell 7.3 percent from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, amid the restricted travel following the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 505,000 foreign workers filed a year-end tax settlement for their 2021 income, down from 545,000 [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean companies spent more than 5 trillion won (US$4.04 billion) in 2022 to help cut air pollution and promote workplace safety as part of their so-called environment, social and governance (ESG) management, a report said Wednesday. The country’s top 100 firms by sales invested 5.44 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Bills and coins that the South Korean central bank discarded due to damage grew 2.3 percent in 2022 as increased banknotes were redeemed amid high interest rates, data showed Tuesday. A total of 412.68 million damaged bills and coins were taken out of circulation last year, down from 403.52 [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S. beef accounted for more than 50 percent of South Korea’s total imports of the meat in 2022, taking up the top spot for six years, industry data showed Tuesday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy imported 256,910 tons of American beef last year, or 54.1 percent of its total beef imports [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of K-pop albums hit a fresh high last year, data showed Monday, as limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continued to push up demand for physical albums. K-pop album exports hit US$233.113 million in 2022, up 5.6 percent from a year ago, according to import and [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The proportion of self-employed people in South Korea touched a record low in 2022 in the wake of the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy had 5.63 million self-employed people as of end-December, accounting for 20.1 percent of the 28.09 million employed in the country, according [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s population shrank last year, continuing its downward trend for three years in a row, with the number of single-person households close to 10 million, government data showed Sunday. The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the country’s registered population stood at 51,439,038 as of Dec. 31 of [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products hit a fresh high last year on strong overseas demand for chips and mobile phones, data showed Thursday. Outbound shipments of ICT products rose 2.5 percent on-year to US$233.3 billion for 2022, outnumbering the previous high of $227.6 billion [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Household loans extended by banks in South Korea declined for the first time in 18 years last year, due mainly to higher borrowing costs, the central bank’s data showed Thursday. Banks’ outstanding household loans decreased by 2.6 trillion won (US$2.09 billion) to 1,058.1 trillion won, according to the data [...]