SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The average monthly income of single-parent families stands at only about 60 percent of the average for all households, a government report showed Sunday. The average income of single-parent families with children under the age of 18 came to 2.94 million won (US$2,003) in 2024, according to the Ministry [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The average debt held by wage workers in South Korea edged up in 2023 from the previous year, despite a rise in the benchmark interest rate, partly due to government-funded low-interest loan programs for low-income individuals, the statistics agency said Thursday. The average bank and non-bank loans extended to [...]
SEOUL, March 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A growing number of South Korea’s isolated and withdrawn youth are attempting to reenter daily life through study and hobbies, but nearly 40% ultimately fall back into isolation, according to the country’s first nationwide survey on the issue released Tuesday. The Korean Youth Policy Institute’s 2024 National Survey on Isolated [...]
SEOUL, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly half of South Koreans over the age of 50 who transitioned from wage employment to self-employment are earning less than the country’s minimum wage, highlighting the precarious financial situation of older entrepreneurs. According to a report released on Sunday by the Korea Employment Information Service, analysis of Korea Welfare [...]
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of multicultural marriages reached 20,759 last year, up 1,042 from the previous year’s 19,717 cases, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of international marriages sharply declined to around 15,000 in 2020 from about 24,000 the previous year, and slid further to around 13,000 in [...]
SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s household debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio was the second highest among major nations, following Canada, amid growing concerns about rising household borrowing amid weak growth and domestic demand, data showed Sunday. The debt-to-GDP ratio for South Korea came to 91.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, [...]
SEOUL, March 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans are spending nearly seven times more time watching short-form videos than traditional over-the-top (OTT) streaming content, underscoring a shift in digital consumption patterns toward quick, engaging clips. According to a report released on Thursday by WiseApp Retail, a mobile app and retail analytics firm, the average South Korean [...]
SEOUL, March 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean government has, for the first time, publicly disclosed data on early childhood private education spending, shedding light on a rapidly expanding market that has sparked concerns over educational inequality and excessive academic pressure on young children. The Ministry of Education released findings from the 2024 Early Childhood [...]
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — People in their 60s or older looking for jobs increased last year despite a decline in all other age groups, data showed Sunday. A total of 4,525,456 new job applications were posted on government-run employment website Worknet in 2024, marking a 5.3 percent decline from a year earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly one in three newly minted Ph.D. holders in South Korea last year remained unemployed, a record-high figure that underscores a tightening job market even for the country’s most highly educated individuals. According to data from Statistics Korea, only 70.4% of Ph.D. recipients who graduated in 2024 had secured employment [...]