These figures were low compared to December 2019 -- a month before COVID-19 initially hit the nation -- when the employment rate reached 61.7 percent (71.1 percent for men and 52.5 percent for women). Though the employment index is likely to improve after touching the bottom in the first half of 2020, it has been found that the disparities among residents in the 17 major regions, as well as the ...

The OECD defined part-time employment as people who usually work -- whether as employees or self-employed -- less than 30 hours per week in their main job. This may suggest that more and more Korean men have endured relatively weak job security in recent years, as they failed to find regular employment. Some local researchers, on the other hand, claim that the rising part-time employment rate c...

The next in rank were Canada at 73.8 percent, Russia at 72 percent and the US at 69.7 percent. The figure for Korea was also lower than the 67 percent in Israel. Korea ranked above only two -- Colombia and Chile. During the Moon Jae-in administration, the employment rate -- which is made public each quarter -- has continued to stay under the OECD average, except for during the second quarter of ...

Though the proportion stood at 41.2 percent in 2017 and 41.5 percent in 2018, it made a big jump to 45 percent in 2019. The figure further climbed by 2.4 percentage points to reach record-high of 47.4 percent this year. The portion of female nonregular workers ranged between 39.9 percent and 41.1 percent during the previous Park Geun-hye administration (February 2013-March 2017). When it comes ...

After the province overtook the capital in 2005, the disparity has continued to deepen. Seoul’s population was 70.2 percent the size of Gyeonggi’s last month, compared to 86.2 percent a decade earlier. The gap is likely to further widen in the coming months or years, given that Gyeonggi -- alongside Sejong -- is still steady increasing population, despite an overall nationwide decline since Dec...

Korea, which posted 175 percent in the household debt-to-disposal income ratio in 2016, overtook Canada and Sweden in the ranking in recent years. Its figure compares to 145 percent in the UK, 126 percent in Portugal and 118 percent in Belgium. Among members with figures less than 100 percent were Germany (99 percent), Greece (98 percent) in Greece, Austria (93 percent) and Italy (91 percent). ...

In January 2018, deaths outnumbered births by 31,857 vs. 30,615 in a historic first. This marked the first time, unofficially, that the numbers switched since the mid-1950s or 1960s. The cumulative death tally in the Nov. 2019-Sept. 2021 period was higher by about 10.5 percent (62,300) than that of births for the 23-month period by 589,048 vs. 526,748. Interior Ministry data shows the severity ...

Under the assumption that the 2020-2021 pace would maintain, the balance in outstanding mortgage loans would top the 1,000 trillion mark by mid-2022, though it is an arithmetical estimate. On the other hand, the growth pace will possibly slow down as the financial authority, first-tier commercial banks and the Land Ministry have continued to apply tougher regulations for mortgages to restrict le...

The Land Ministry specified that the foreigners comprised individuals, corporations and public organizations. Ethnic Koreans were counted among the foreign individuals. Investors from the US held the largest portion of foreign-owned land as of the end of 2020, at 133.2 million square meters, or 52.6 percent of the total. Of the land owned by US nationals, Korean Americans were found to have owne...

In contrast, over the corresponding period of 2020 the tally for visitors from China far surpassed that for the US, at 707,302 to 216,312. Americans ranked third on the list of foreign visitors by nationality, after the 434,961 Japanese visitors. In 2019 and 2018 Americans were in fourth place, after Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese. “US nationals overtook those from Taiwan, Japan and China, in ...

SEJONG -- Housing prices in Seoul have continued to renew their all-time highs this year, in addition to a surge over the past few years since the mid-2010s. Many apartment complexes in the capital have recorded a 100-150 percent increase in price between 2016 and 2020. According to KB Kookmin Bank and Naver.com, the average trading price of homes in Seoul reached 39.33 million won ($33,100) per...

The situation is mainly attributed to the record-breaking portion of single-person households -- 42.4 percent -- 1.89 million of the city’s 4.42 million households had just one member last month. Based on resident registration data, Seoul has many salaried workers or job seekers, who live alone. Its population per household is expected to further sink in the coming years in the wake of falling m...

SEJONG -- South Korea’s gasoline prices climbed to the highest in almost seven years, in line with a spike in international crude prices over the past month amid steeply rising demand for petroleum worldwide. The situation, which could worsen further, is expected to pose a tough burden to some manufacturers and households, as long as oil producers choose not to increase output. According the Ko...

This was the second-lowest figure (tied with the figure for February 2020) since January 2020, when COVID-19 initially hit the nation. The Index III, a relatively new method for calculation by the government, regards underemployed people -- those who work less than 36 hours a week and want to work more hours, as well as seasonal workers who are out of work for part of the year -- as unemployed. ...

Koreans in their 50s (8.61 million), 40s (8.18 million) and 60s (7.09 million) ranked first, second and third, respectively, among all age groups last month. They far outstripped those in their 30s at 6.74 million, those in their 20s at 6.7 million and those in their 10s at 4.72 million. Further, the tally for babies and children aged under 10 stayed at 3.8 million, a similar figure to those in ...