SEOUL, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) — As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on, the number of both domestic and international child adoptions last year in Korea reached an all-time low. The Ministry of Health and Welfare reported that last year there were 260 domestic adoptions and 232 foreign adoptions, as approved by the court. [...]
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Music competitions for classical musicians are moving online as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on. This year’s Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, which ended on May 3, assessed pre-recorded videos of each performance online for the first and second rounds. Only the six finalists performed offline with [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean’s happiness levels hit a new low last August, during the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, the latest survey showed. Last year, the Center for Happiness Studies at Seoul National University, in collaboration with Kakao Corp.’s charity foundation, conducted a survey of 1.4 million South Koreans over [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of people subscribing to state employment insurance rose in April by the highest figure since before the pandemic, the labor ministry said Monday. According to the ministry, nearly 14.2 million people had employment insurance last month, up 422,000, or 3.1 percent, from April 2020. The increase was [...]
HONG KONG SAR, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) – Almost 7 in 10 Asia Pacific consumers who have faced “food insecurity” at some point in their lives experienced it for the first time in recent months, according to new research. Food insecurity is defined as the lack of available financial resources for food at the household [...]
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Children are feeling less satisfied and are struggling more with anxiety and depression following the coronavirus outbreak. ChildFund Korea conducted a two-month study of 1,825 children and teenagers in October of last year, which showed that levels of life satisfaction among children and teens fell from 7.27 points out [...]
SEOUL, May 3 (Korea Bizwire) — With the popularity of small weddings on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic, individual consumers are spending less on wedding-related items. Major online shopping mall Gmarket reported a 36 percent decrease in the average amount of spending on wedding-related goods between January 1 and April 27 compared to the [...]
SEOUL, April 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean market of functional foods is growing fast amid greater awareness of health amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Friday. Sales of red ginseng and other health functional foods came to 4.9 trillion won (US$4.42 billion) in 2020, up 40 percent from four years earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, April 30 (Korea Bizwire) — With the COVID-19 pandemic putting restrictions on outdoor activities, the number of South Koreans who are having difficulty managing their weight is increasing. The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity (KOSSO) conducted a survey of 1,000 men and women over 20 years of age across the country to [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — With the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak resulting in restrictions on socializing, South Korea’s commercial property vacancy rate continues to rise. The vacancy rate of mid and large-sized commercial properties across the country averaged 13 percent in the first quarter of this year, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, [...]