SEJONG --The number of unemployed or underemployed people in South Korea climbed to the second-highest on record in December at 14.6 percent, according to Statistics Korea. Defined as the “extended-based” jobless rate, it refers to the percentage of the unemployed or underemployed of the economically active population under the Supplementary Index III for Employment. The Index III regards “underemployed” people -- who work less than 36 hours a week and want to work mo

SEJONG -- The downhill trajectory in South Korea’s demographic figures, which started in December 2019, continued last month as more cities and provinces posted negative population growth. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the nation’s population declined by 3,091 on-month to 51.825 million in January 2021. In December 2018 the figure stood at 51.826 million. Furthermore, 15 of the country’s 17 major cities and provinces saw growth in the minus range, with onl

SEJONG -- Women outnumbered and outpaced men in growth as recipients of unemployment benefits over the past year, when COVID-19 dealt a severe blow to the nation. According to the Korea Employment Information Service, the tally for female recipients of unemployment benefits came to 307,178 in December 2020, up 44.3 percent from 212,780, posted a year earlier. This outstripped the number of male recipients, 299,048, and on-year growth of 40.6 percent over the corresponding period. The ag

SEJONG -- South Korea has placed No. 5 in an indicator for relative income poverty among 33 countries, according to report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the French-based organization’s analysis of 2019 figures or the latest available data, it put the poverty rate at 16.7 percent for Korea. The OECD defines the poverty rate as the ratio of the number of people whose income falls below half of the national’s median household income. It made Korea t

SEJONG -- President Moon Jae-in was active in appointing women to his Cabinet during the early part of his term, though the percentage relative to the total has dropped since then. On the back of the current administration’s policy since 2017 favoring greater gender balance among ministers, South Korea overtook the US and some other developed countries in terms of the percentage of women occupying ministerial posts, according to the latest comparison from the Organization for Economic Co

SEJONG -- South Korea is heading toward a labor shortage in the wake of record-low fertility rates and the rapidly aging population. The baby boomer generation -- defined in Korea as those born between 1955-1963 -- is beginning to enter retirement age, with the working-age population classed as those aged 15-64. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the working age population fell to 71.4 percent of the total in December, the lowest in at least 12 years. The portion was 72.4 perce

SEJONG -- Major cities in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, were found to have led a rise in housing prices in the past 10 weeks, as residents in their 20s and 30s have been snapping up apartments, new data showed. 　 A younger generation of buyers have been purchasing apartments in high-density residential towns in Gyeonggi Province, as skyrocketing prices in Seoul have pushed them to seek more affordable housing further afield, according to data by KB Kookmin Bank and Naver.com. The

SEJONG -- The year of 2020 is expected to record as one of the few years, where a fever of buying apartments and stocks by taking out financial loans swept over the nation. The phenomenon was triggered by skyrocketing real estate prices in the wake of a housing shortage and sharp rebound in the Kospi despite the still high infections of novel coronavirus. Though the fourth-quarter data has yet to be compiled, the figure for the January-September of last year is suggesting that more and more K

SEJONG -- The number of people aged 100 or over in South Korea reached a historic high of 21,912 last year, data from the Ministry of Interior and Safety showed. In particular, 75.5 percent of centenarians were women, with the age group comprising 16,561 women vs. 5,351 men. Of all female centenarians, 5,001 or 30.1 percent resided in Seoul. Compared with 2010, when the tally of female centenarians residing in the capital was 2,549, the number has seen a 96.1 percent increase. The figure stoo

SEJONG -- The number of nonregular employees in South Korea came to 7.4 million as of 2020, which made up 36.3 percent of the country’s 20.4 million salaried employees, Statistics Korea data showed. Job statuses in the nation are commonly divided into regular jobs with permanent contracts and strong protections for workers, and nonregular jobs such as temporary jobs, contract jobs and other forms of works with lower job security. Compared to 32.4 percent in 2015 during the previous Park

SEJONG -- The novel coronavirus has undermined the job security of foreign nationals living here, government data has shown. According to the Justice Ministry and Statistics Korea, the unemployment rate for the expatriate population hit a record-high of 7.6 percent in 2020 since the government started compiling the data. Of the economically active expatriate population of 917,000, 69,500 were out of work last year. This contrasts with 5.5 percent in the jobless rate among foreigners in 2019,

SEJONG -- South Korea has pushed forward signing free trade agreements with major economies around the globe over the past two decades. After the nation’s first free trade agreement with Chile took effect in April 2004, 17 such deals -- with 56 partner countries engaging -- have been implemented. Among them were the pacts with the European Union (effective since July 2011) and the US (effective since March 2012). Four agreements (which include 16 partner countries) with Korea are poised

SEJONG -- South Korea still fell short of major economies in the employment index as of the third quarter of last year, which was the latest available data. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea posted 65.7 percent in the employment rate for people aged between 15-64, deemed the working age population, in September 2020. While the OECD compared 32 members, Korea ranked 26th in the index. Of the total 37 members, the French-based organization had yet to

SEJONG -- South Korea is home to about 35,000 defectors from North Korea. Recent government agency data revealed sharp gender disparities in their spouses’ countries of origin. The analysis concerns country of origin only, regardless of whether the defectors’ spouses have acquired South Korean citizenship. According to Statistics Korea and the Korea Hana Foundation, at least 3 out of every 7 female married defectors -- 43.3 percent -- had South Korean-born spouses as of 2019. The

SEJONG -- South Korea has seen a 167.3 percent increase in the number of novel coronavirus infections over the past three months, higher than in major economies in South and Central America as well as in many other Asian nations. The cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases to date in Korea came to 61,769 as of Jan. 1, compared with 23,106 on Sept. 21, 2020, according to epidemiological data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Over the correspondi

SEJONG -- In a recent comparison of 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Korea’s corporate tax rate grew second-fastest over the five years ending in 2019. During the same time frame, Korea ranked seventh in personal income tax growth. Of the total 37 OECD members, Australia and Greece were excluded from the comparison. According to the Paris-based organization, Korea’s tax on corporate profit was equivalent to 4.3 percent of the nation&rs

SEJONG -- A growing number of South Koreans have abandoned looking for jobs as the pandemic worsens a hiring market that was already tightening for several years. According to a survey on the working age population -- those aged 15 or over -- by Statistics Korea, the number of discouraged workers stood at 534,000 in December 2019, the month before the novel coronavirus first arrived in Korea. The tally counts people who had looked unsuccessfully for a job in the previous year but not in the m

SEJONG -- South Korea’s elderly population has increased by more than 1 million in only three years, with the growth pace accelerating and their portion of the entire population expanding, government data showed. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the number of seniors, or people aged 65 or over, came to 8.46 million as of November. This posted a growth of 1.13 million (or 15.4 percent) from 7.33 million in November 2017. The pace is speeding up recently, given that the ta

SEJONG -- South Korea saw the cost of housing climb across the nation during the second half of the year, with prices in six of the eight major cities posting growth of more than 8 percent since July. Sejong topped the list among the eight major cities and nine provinces in the nation as the average price of housing in the administrative city surged 28.4 percent in less than six months. According to KB Kookmin Bank and Naver.com, Sejong’s average trading price, which posted 15.54 millio

SEJONG -- South Korea topped the list among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the growth of tax revenue -- the state’s income from taxation -- between 2017 and 2019. According to the France-based organization, Korea’s tax revenue was equivalent to 27.38 percent of its gross domestic product in 2019. This represents a 2.02 percentage point climb from 2017, when the Moon Jae-in administration took office and tax revenue was 25.36 percent of GDP.