The number of potential job seekers jumped in the third quarter of this year, data showed Friday, in an indication of a tougher employment market even though the nation's economy grew at a solid pace. Potential job seekers, who are not categorized as jobless but are looking for jobs, rose by about 194,000 people on year to some 1.6 million people during the July-September period, according to th...

Exports by South Korea's venture startups will likely hit a record $20 billion this year helped by surging shipments of instrumentation and control devices and semiconductor production equipment to China and Vietnam, industry data showed Friday. The amount reached $14.7 billion for the first nine months this year, up 14.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the statistics provided by the K...

South Korea will launch a thorough inspection of all state-funded firms to find out if any job favors were given to children of influential people in politics and business amid rising public anger over reports of illicit employment, the government said Friday. The decision was made at an emergency ministerial meeting chaired by Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, with heads of 12 government ministri...

South Korea's consumer confidence rebounded in October as tensions subsided between North Korea and the United States, a central bank poll showed Friday. The composite consumer sentiment index for October stood at 109.2, up 1.5 points from the previous month, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea. In August, the index fell 1.3 points from July. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumb...

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Thursday that the government will take steps to maintain current growth momentum through next year, following the latest data, which showed Asia's fourth-largest economy is expected to reach its growth target of 3 percent in 2017. Earlier in the morning, the Bank of Korea said the economy expanded a solid 1.4 percent in the July-September period from t...

The KDB Foundation held a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of its operation at the Korea Development Bank headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday, the company said Thursday. The ceremony was attended by some 80 people from partner organizations including the Korea Association of Social Welfare Centers and Social Solidarity Bank, along with KDB scholarship recipients and company officials. The f...

Out of some 700 trillion won ($622 billion) worth of stocks and bonds held by foreign investors, nearly 20 percent originates from regions deemed as tax havens, raising concerns over the heightening volatility of the local financial market. According to data released by Rep. Park Kwang-on of the Democratic Party of Korea, registered foreign investors reached 40,141 from 127 countries as of the e...

South Korean stocks ended down Thursday as investors sold stocks on profit-taking. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 11.87 points, or 0.48 percent, to close at 2,480.63. The drop came after the main index rose 0.8 percent over the past four sessions. Trade volume was moderate at 638.07 million shares worth 7.05 trillion won ($6.3 bil...

The government discovered 9.3 trillion won ($8.2 billion) worth of assets stashed away under borrowed names by more than 11,000 people over the past five years, data showed Thursday. South Korea first introduced the real-name financial system in 1993 to stave off money laundering and tax evasion by banning transactions under phony or borrowed names and requiring people to use real names to open ...

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as foreigners turned net sellers on profit taking ahead of major companies' earnings releases this week. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 2.25 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,490.25 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Foreign and retail investors sold a combined 13.4 billion won ($12 million) worth of stocks, offsetting 15 billion won...

South Korea's economic growth hit a seven-year record high in the third quarter due to increased construction investment and exports, central bank data showed Thursday. In the July-September period, the country's gross domestic product increased 1.4 percent from the previous quarter, faster than the previous quarter's 0.6 percent on-quarter gain, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Ko...

South Korea will hold a public hearing next month on the renegotiation of a free trade pact with the United States, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday, as the two countries move to reset the terms at Washington's call. The hearing on the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), slated for Nov. 10, will be an opportunity to exchange public views and collect opinions from experts in the related f...

Among Seoul’s lower-income bracket, those in their 20s and 30s residing in the southern part of Seoul paid the highest amount of monthly rent, while those aged 60 and over living downtown paid the least, data showed Wednesday. According to an analysis submitted by Seoul Metropolitan Government to the parliamentary land, infrastructure and transport committee, the younger generation in Gangnam-gu...

The latest set of measures to strengthen South Korean mortgage borrowers’ debt repayment obligations was within market expectation and has defused uncertainties on the stock market, analysts said Wednesday. The toughened mortgage rules, unveiled Tuesday to curb snowballing national household debt, would help local banks and builders on the stock market benefit from abated uncertainties, the stoc...

Concerns are growing that President Moon-Jae-in’s push for reducing work hours along with a steep increase in the minimum wage may further aggravate Korea’s labor productivity, which remains near the bottom among major economies. In a meeting with his aides last week, Moon said that, without job sharing through reduced work hours, it would be impossible to significantly raise the country’s emplo...