SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea reported the first job additions in 13 months in March in the latest sign that the job market is recovering after a yearlong slump caused by the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 26.9 million last month, 314,000 more than a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of South Korea’s major fried chicken franchises jumped in 2020 as people resorted more to food delivery amid the coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Wednesday. Kyochon, the biggest franchise, saw its top line surging 17.8 percent on-year to 447.6 billion won (US$398 million) last year, and sales of [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Transactions on mobile games in South Korea reached a record high in the first quarter of this year, data showed Wednesday, amid the pandemic-driven online gaming trend. Mobile game transactions stood at 1.66 trillion won (US$1.48 billion) in the January-March period this year, compared with 1.48 trillion won the [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Liquor companies in South Korea performed poorly in 2020 as people consumed less alcohol due to the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Wednesday. Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., a major maker of beer and soju, a Korean distilled liquor, saw its sales shrink 7.7 percent on-year to 2.16 trillion won (US$1.92 [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of automobiles shot up nearly 17 percent in the January-March period from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, on the back of rising demand for premium automobiles, including SUVs and eco-friendly cars. Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 555,430 units in the first quarter, compared with 475,165 [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Netflix saw its revenue more than double in South Korea last year as the video streaming giant enjoyed rapid user growth amid the pandemic, its filing showed Tuesday. Netflix Services Korea Ltd.’s sales last year stood at 415.45 billion won (US$356 million), up 123.5 percent from the previous year, [...]
SEJONG, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean households’ spending on lottery tickets rose more than 7 percent in 2020 despite a record fall in their overall consumption, government data showed Tuesday. Local households spent a monthly average of 590 won (US$0.52) on lottery tickets last year, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of unemployment benefit recipients reached a new monthly record in March, due mainly to the prolonged negative impact of coronavirus pandemic on the economy, government data showed Monday. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government paid job-seeking benefits, also dubbed unemployment allowance, to 759,000 [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Fine dust emissions from coal plants more than halved over the past four-month period compared with two years earlier, data showed Monday, after the country limited their operations during the winter. Local coal plants generated 3,191 tons of fine dust from December last year to March 2021, sharply down [...]
SEOUL, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) — One in four Seoul citizens turned to “revenge spending” to make up for missed shopping during the coronavirus pandemic, a study has shown. According to a Wednesday report by the Seoul Institute, a think tank for the Seoul metropolitan government, 24.3 percent of those surveyed in the first quarter [...]