SEOUL, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 15 out of 100 employed people in South Korea changed jobs in 2020 amid the sluggish job market hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The number of registered employees in South Korea, who are eligible for state insurance programs, came to 24.83 million in 2020, up [...]
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 8 in 10 smaller food firms in South Korea have taken a hit from sky-high international grain prices caused by extreme weather events and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a poll showed Tuesday. The survey of 213 small and medium-sized food firms showed 82.6 percent of the respondents [...]
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 2.4 percent last month from a year earlier as a chip shortage continued to affect vehicle production, an industry association said Tuesday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles stood at 23,512 units last month, down from 24,080 units a year [...]
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Card use for settlement in South Korea swelled 11 percent in April on softer anti-coronavirus rules with spending on travel and transportation spiking, data showed Tuesday, in a sign of the country’s consumption returning to pre-pandemic normalcy. Spending made with credit, debit and prepaid cards came to 90.3 trillion [...]
SEOUL, June 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea had the highest household debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio among 36 major economies in the first quarter, a global finance report said Monday. The country’s household debt-to-GDP ratio came to 104.3 percent in the January-March period, followed by Lebanon with 97.8 percent, Hong Kong with 95.3 percent, [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea continued to grow in April as eased virus curbs and the economic recovery boosted demand for travel services and foodstuffs, data showed Thursday. The value of online shopping transactions stood at 16.5 trillion won (US$13.2 billion) in April, up 11.9 percent from the previous [...]
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean film attendance numbers nearly shot back up to the pre-pandemic level in May, data showed Wednesday, with a couple of big hits leading the charge. According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), movies screened in the country amassed a combined 14.55 million admissions in May, the highest [...]
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s trade of computers and related goods soared nearly 40 percent to reach a new all-time high in the first four months of the year amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The country’s exports and imports of computers and peripherals stood at US$13.3 billion in the January-April [...]
SEJONG, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Monthly lease contracts exceeded half of South Korea’s home rentals for the first time in April, government data showed Tuesday, due mainly to the impact of new laws that took effect two years earlier meant to protect tenants. The number of monthly home lease contracts, called “weolse” in Korea, [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail sales in South Korea rose 10.6 percent on-year in April on the back of growing demand for fashion-related items and luxury goods amid eased antivirus curbs to support people’s return to normalcy, the industry ministry said Monday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers reached [...]