SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chip maker, said Monday that it spent 5.36 trillion won (US$4.36 billion) on research and development activities in the first quarter of the year. The investment surpassed the previous record high of 5.32 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2018. The [...]
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of moviegoers in South Korea dropped to an all-time low in April, data showed Saturday, as people refrained from visiting crowded places amid the new coronavirus pandemic. A total of 972,447 people went to the cinema last month, marking the first time for the figure to hover [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Overseas stock purchases by South Korean retail investors jumped to a record high level in April amid signs that the coronavirus outbreak is slowing down, data showed Friday. Korean retail investors bought US$2.01 billion worth of foreign stocks from April 1-27, marking the largest overseas stock buying on a [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Three-fourths of South Korean students received private tutoring in 2019, for which they spent 6.5 hours a week on average, a new survey showed. The annual survey, released earlier this week and conducted by the national Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the country’s [...]
SEJONG, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of cigarettes in South Korea rose 4.1 percent on-year in the first quarter of this year, data showed Wednesday, due to robust sales of traditional cigarettes. South Korean smokers purchased 810 million 20-cigarette packs in the January-March period, compared with 780 million packs in the same period last [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Large companies in South Korea have trimmed more than 10,000 jobs over the past two months in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. According to CEO Score, 492 out of the country’s top 500 firms by sales had a combined 1,644,868 employees subscribing to [...]
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea suffered its first year-over-year decrease in the number of corporate employees last month, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday, apparently due to the economic impact from the coronavirus outbreak. According to the ministry’s labor force report, domestic business entities employing more than one person had [...]
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s credit card spending fell at the fastest rate ever last month, data showed Tuesday, amid the spread of the new coronavirus that continued to keep people away from unnecessary contact. In March, the amount of purchases using credit and debit cards dropped 4.3 percent from the same [...]
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Operating margins of South Korea’s top 100 companies fell to a six-year low in 2019 amid high labor costs, data showed Tuesday. Their average operating margin of the leading firms by sales stood at 4.5 percent last year, the lowest level since 2013, according to market research service provider [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Some 47.5 percent of South Korean workers saw their income fall due to the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 10,000 here, a survey showed Monday. Among those on temporary work contracts, 66.3 percent suffered an income loss, while the corresponding figure was 35 percent for permanent employees, [...]