SEJONG -- South Korea’s industrial output and facilities investment declined on-month, though the two sectors also recorded positive growth on-year, reflecting economic uncertainty under constant pressure of the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The industrial output decreased by 1.9 percent in October from a month earlier, which marked the highest negative growth since it posted minus 2 percent in April 2020. Production in the manufacturing segment, including automobiles and metals, decrea

SEJONG -- Banpo-dong, Seoul, is likely to see the average trading price of homes exceed 100 million won ($83,800) per “pyeong” in the coming months. Apgujeong-dong, Seoul is poised to follow suit. In the nation, a pyeong is a basic unit used for real estate prices, equal to 3.3 square meters. These two districts in the capital’s Gangnam-gu, located just south of Han River, are the priciest in South Korea. According to Naver.com and KB Kookmin Bank, Banpo-dong’s home pr

SEJONG -- The number of paid jobs for South Koreans in their 30s has declined for a seventh consecutive quarter. This could indicate a lack of job security for the core working age bracket, despite recent improvement in hiring indexes for other age groups. Statistics Korea said Thursday that the tally for salaried jobs increased by 681,000 on-year for all age groups in the second quarter. By age, the figure decreased only among those aged between 30-39. Those in their 60s and older topped the

SEJONG -- The tally of those subject to the comprehensive real estate holding tax -- individuals or corporations -- exceeded 1 million this year for the first time since the nation introduced the tax in June 2005. According to the National Tax Service, almost 1.03 million individuals and corporations are supposed to pay comprehensive real estate taxes in 2021. The figure consists of 947,000 homeowners and 79,600 landowners. This shows that the number of comprehensive real estate holding tax ta

SEJONG -- The Finance Ministry has unveiled its plan to support microbusiness owners, including the self-employed, in use of tax revenue surplus and the national budget. This is regarded as a sort of bailout for small businesses, which were severely hit by the pandemic in terms of sales and financial conditions. While they will have the opportunity of taking out state-led loans on low rates, the government’s support package does not include cash grants. “The support scale would rea

SEJONG -- The government’s move to levy comprehensive real estate taxes on a certain portion of homeowners is likely to face severe backlash, amid the growing tax burden of households in proportion to high growth in apartment prices. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, those subject to the comprehensive real estate tax are people owning two homes or more -- whose collective property value, assessed by the Land Ministry, surpasses 600 million won ($506,000). Homeowners will

SEJONG -- Nonregular workers’ pay has risen quite slowly compared to regular workers over the past four years, government data shows. According to Statistics Korea, the average monthly pay for regular employees reached 3.33 million won ($2,790) this year. This marked a 17 percent increase -- or by 485,000 won -- from 2.85 million won in 2017. But the increase in average pay for nonregular employees was 12.7 percent -- or 200,000 won -- over the corresponding period, from 1.56 million wo

SEJONG – Major cities outside the capital have led the increase in the proportion of nonregular jobs in South Korea over the last four years. According to Statistics Korea, 38.4 percent of workers had nonregular status in 2021, an all-time high and up 5.5 percentage points from 32.9 percent in 2017, when President Moon Jae-in took office. Nonregular workers include temporary workers, part-timers and others in underemployed status.   While the situation is causing weakening job secu

SEJONG -- South Korea looks set to keep its undesirable No. 1 position in the pay gap between male and female employees in 2020 among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the organization, Korea posted 31.5 percent in the gender wage gap last year. This means that women earned 31.5 percent less than men on average, a gap that is likely to surpass those of other members, based on previous years’ data. According to the OECD’s def

SEJONG -- The number of men and boys in South Korea has continued to decline since August 2019 on a monthly basis, which has led the gender ratio -- the number of men per 100 women – to fall to an all-time low, government data showed. It has been found that Seoul and Busan -- the nation’s top two populous cities -- have taken the initiative in widening the gender disparity in demographic figures. According to the data held by the Ministry Interior and Safety, the male population p

SEJONG – The most recent employment rate was the highest among male residents in Sejong and female residents in Jeju Province, according to a state agency’s analysis of figures from 17 major regions, eight cities and nine provinces, in South Korea. Data from Statistics Korea showed that the nation’s employment rate for people aged 15-64 posted 60.4 percent as of June 2021 (the latest statistics available), in which a wide gap between men and women is seen -- 70 percent for men

SEJONG -- South Korea saw the portion of employed men working as part-timers exceed the 10 percent mark in 2020, a first since the nation started compiling relevant data in 1989. Further, since 2016, Korea has been No. 1 in the growth of male part-time workers among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the OECD, part-timers accounted for 10.43 percent of all employed men last year. The figure was an increase of 3.67 percentage points from 2016. Af

SEJONG -- South Korea placed eighth among 10 major economies in employment rate in the third quarter of 2021, which suggests that the country would still lag behind most members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the hiring sector. The OECD has compared the figures for nine members -- which have publicized the third-quarter employment rates among the total 38 members -- and one nonmember, Russia. Korea posted a 66.8 percent employment rate for the working-age popu

SEJONG -- Recent employment data has raised the possibility that nonregular employees could make up the majority of salaried female workers in South Korea as soon as 2022, should current trends continue. According to Statistics Korea, nonregular employees -- such as temporary workers and part-timers -- accounted for 4.49 million of South Korea’s 9.47 million salaried women in August. The state-run agency publicizes the yearly data each August. The data shows job security for women has qu

SEJONG -- The population gap between Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province has continued to grow in recent months and years, with the province having 4 million more residents than the capital in October, government data showed. These are the top two populous regions among 17 major cities and provinces in South Korea. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the population of Seoul posted 9.53 million, which is down 9,828 from a month earlier. The figure for Gyeonggi reached a record

SEJONG -- South Korea has become one of the several countries among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 38 members to see household debt exceed more than double its disposable income. Further, Korea was the fastest member in terms of growth of outstanding household debt in 2020, recent data showed, as well as the fastest for the 2016-2020 period. According to the Paris-based organization, Korea’s outstanding household debt was equal to 201 pe

SEJONG -- The number of deaths outstripped that of births in 22 of the past 23 months in South Korea, which could signal mid and long-term risks in terms of national competitiveness due to a shrinking workforce. A continuous decline in the working age population, those aged between 15-64, is likely to undermine national competitiveness in the coming years and decades. Of the entire population, the size of the working age population has dipped to the lowest in 25 years at 71.1 percent. Accordi

SEJONG -- There is a possibility that the outstanding mortgages in the nation will surpass 1,000 trillion won ($856 billion) for the first time as early as in the first half of next year, given the current growth pace. The outstanding mortgage loans -- issued to households for home purchase by financial services firms or state-run agencies -- reached the record-high of 948 trillion won as of June, according to the Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea. This was a 27 percent, or 207 trillion won,

SEJONG -- Land owned by foreigners in South Korea has reached an all-time high in terms of combined size, amid their active purchases of apartments or sites for business, such as manufacturing and leisure facilities, government data showed. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, foreigners owned 253.3 million square meters of land as of December 2020, which is the latest figure available. Though this accounts for less than 0.3 percent of the nation’s entire terri

SEJONG -- US nationals are likely to make up the largest proportion of inbound foreign visitors this year, overtaking Chinese visitors, who have held the No. 1 position for more than a decade. According to the Korea Immigration Service, the total number of foreigners who visited South Korea posted 747,813 for the first nine months of the year. Data showed that almost 1 in 4 of the non-Korean visitors were US nationals: They made up 24.2 percent of the 181,558 people who visited Korea during t