SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A total of 55 workers were killed at construction sites in the first quarter of this year, the land ministry said Wednesday, as the country began enforcing a new law that calls for the punishment of company chiefs for serious workplace disasters. Of the 55 victims, 14 were affiliated [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of babies born in South Korea fell to another record low in February, data showed Wednesday, illustrating the country’s gloomy demographic situation and chronically low birthrate. A total of 20,654 babies were born in February, down 3.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean firms’ spending on research and development (R&D) expanded more than 8 percent in 2021 though their sales weakened amid the coronavirus pandemic, a market tracker said Wednesday. Combined R&D expenditures by 224 out of the country’s top 500 companies by sales stood at 60.4 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean refiners posted the biggest quarterly growth in exports of their petroleum products in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven by robust fuel demand and rising oil prices amid eased COVID-19 border controls, a report showed Tuesday. The combined outbound shipments of petroleum products by SK [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Korean workers who took parental leave in 2021 decreased year-on-year for the first time since the system was introduced in 2001, government data showed Monday. A total of 110,555 workers took time off to take care of their children last year, down 1.3 percent from [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of instant noodles soared 20 percent on-year in March on the global popularity of Korean pop culture amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy exported US$71.58 million worth of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, last month, up from $59.62 million a year [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean brokerages posted a 62 percent on-year gain in their combined overseas net profit last year on increased stock trading amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial regulator said Sunday. The country’s 13 securities companies reported US$305.9 million in overall overseas net income in 2021, up from $188.5 million [...]
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The United States’ approval rating in South Korea jumped at one of the steepest rates among Asian countries in 2021, a poll showed Friday. The approval rating of U.S. leadership in South Korea climbed to 59 percent last year from 30 percent a year earlier, according to Gallup. The increase [...]
SEOUL, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of obese people in South Korea more than doubled between 2017 and 2021, a trend exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Thursday. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of overweight patients increased from 14,966 in 2017 to 31,170 last year. The [...]
SEOUL, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean firms’ labor costs rose nearly 13 percent in 2021 from a year earlier, but their hiring activities remained sluggish, a corporate tracker said Thursday. The combined labor cost of 120 companies, which are the top businesses in the country’s key 12 industrial sectors by revenue, amounted [...]