SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — One out of 5 male members of the new National Assembly were exempted from mandatory military service, government data showed Wednesday. Of the 242 newly elected male lawmakers, 47 people, or 19.4 percent, gained exemption for such reasons as imprisonment and illness, according to the data compiled and released [...]
SEJONG, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s jobless rate surged to a 10-year high in May as the coronavirus pandemic hammered job markets, data showed Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent in May, marking the highest level since January 2010, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number [...]
SEOUL, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Tuesday their combined electric vehicle sales jumped 58 percent in the January-May period from a year earlier on demand from Europe. Hyundai and Kia sold 40,182 all-electric vehicles in the first five months, up from 25,454 units in the [...]
SEOUL, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean 5G mobile network users are estimated to have reached around 7 million as of late May, just 14 months after the country adopted the ultrahigh speed telecom service, data showed Tuesday. The number of 5G subscribers in the nation is 6.9-7 million, roughly equal to 10 percent [...]
SEJONG, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of state funds paid out as unemployment benefits surpassed 1 trillion won (US$830 million) for the first time last month, data showed Monday, due largely to the negative economic impact of the new coronavirus outbreak. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government paid 1.16 [...]
SEOUL, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s main stock index hit the highest level in valuation since 2002, highlighting stock prices’ roller-coaster gains compared with the actual earnings of the pandemic-hit companies, analysts said Monday. The price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) stood at 25, the highest since [...]
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Business lobby groups in 18 countries forecast the global economy to contract 4 percent this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, a South Korean industry association said Sunday. The 4 percent negative growth outlook is worse than the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of a 3 [...]
SEOUL, June 4 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 30,000 employees at South Korea’s state-run institutions worked from home in the first quarter of the year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, government data showed Thursday. A total of 31,148 workers at 363 state firms and other public institutions telecommuted in the January-March period, according to [...]
SEJONG, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping jumped 12.5 percent from a year earlier in April, data showed Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted consumers to buy more goods via e-commerce platforms. The value of online transactions came to 12.26 trillion won (US$9.98 billion) in the month, up 1.3 trillion won from the same [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 19 percent in May from a year earlier as strong demand for German vehicles offset weak demand for Japanese ones amid the coronavirus pandemic, an industry association said Wednesday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 23,272 units last [...]