South Korean artists released an average 3.8 artistic works to the public in 2021, a sharp drop from 7.8 pieces in 2018, attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, a government survey showed. 　According to the Culture Ministry’s triennial survey on 5,000 people in the art industry, the classical music scene was the busiest in 2021 out of 14 art sectors, with 6.4 public works released on average, followed by 5.8 pieces by Korean traditional musicians and 4.7 shows from the entertainment indu

　Shopping on social media such as Facebook, TikTok and WeChat is going to grow three times faster than sales from traditional channels over the next three years, according to a study released by Accenture. 　Social commerce, defined as transactions that take place entirely within the context of a social-media platform, will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, up from $492 billion in 2021, the consulting company said in the report. The trend is being driven primarily by Gen Z and millennial consumers,

　The South Korean webtoon industry saw its combined sales top 1 trillion won ($843.6 million) for the first time in 2020, government data showed. 　The total sales of the local web-based comic market amounted to 1.05 trillion won in 2020, up 64.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Culture Ministry and the Korea Creative Content Agency. 　It is the first time that the annual industrywide sales surpassed the 1 trillion-won threshold since 2017, when the ministry started to

　Seven out of 10 South Koreans chose China as the biggest security threat to their country among the neighbors, excluding North Korea, a survey showed.  　According to a survey by the state-run Korea Institute of National Unification on 1,006 adults, 71.8 percent of the respondents picked China as the biggest threat to the nation, followed by Japan with 21.1 percent and the United States with 6.3 percent. 　The institute said China‘s “coercive and disrespectful attitude”

Isolation. Anxiety. Uncertainty. The stresses of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on Americans of all ages, but a new poll finds that teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil. Overall, more than a third of Americans ages 13 to 56 cite the pandemic as a major source of stress, and many say it has made certain parts of their lives harder. But when it comes to education, friendships and dating, the disruption ha

Paul Rudd, 52, the affable actor best known for playing “Ant-Man,” was named People magazine’s sexiest man alive, joining the likes of Idris Elba, George Clooney and Bradley Cooper. Rudd played the kind boyfriend of Lisa Kudrow’s wacky Phoebe on TV comedy “Friends” and later took larger roles in comedies like “Knocked Up” before playing Ant-Man in the Marvel superhero movie, followed by a sequel and appearances as the character in “Captain A

　The number of South Korean workers who took time off to take care of their children rose 3.7 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid more government support for parental leave, government data showed. 　A total of 169,345 workers took parental leave to take care of their children in 2020, up 6,089 from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from Statistics Korea. 　The figure was approximately 2.3 times the number 10 years earlier.  　Women accounted for 77.3 percent of the

　South Korea’s imports via e-commerce reached a new all-time high in 2021 as more people purchased foreign goods online, government data showed. 　The country’s e-commerce imports stood at $4.15 billion in the first 11 months of last year, up 25.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. 　The amount for the 11-month period surpasses the full-year figure for 2020. 　The number of e-commerce transactions came to 79 million during the period,

　The percentage of Americans who identify as Christian dropped 15 percentage points over the past 14 years, while those who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated increased by 14 percentage points, a Pew study released indicates. 　Pew‘s National Public Opinion Reference Survey found that the majority of Americans - 63 percent - consider themselves Christian, down from 78 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, 29 percent of adults list their religion as “none,” meaning they conside

　The number of marriages in Seoul has dropped by almost half in the past 20 years, while births of newborns also dropped by 64 percent, the city government said. 　Marriages in the capital stood at 44,746 in 2020, down 43.2 percent compared with 78,745 in 2000, according to the city’s latest report on population trends. 　The average age of first nuptials for men and women last year were 33.61 and 31.6, respectively, 3.96 and 4.35 years older compared with those 20 years ago. 　Babies bor

　Enrollment of foreign students in US colleges and universities plunged 15 percent in the 2020-21 school year even though American institutions remain in high esteem, research showed. 　Fewer than 1 million foreign students enrolled for either online or in-person classes at US universities in the 2020-21 school year, marking a 15 percent year-over-year decrease from the previous school year, according to data from the Institute of International Education analyzed by the Pew Research Center

　Output and exports of South Korea’s bio industry expanded at the fastest clip ever in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　Output of the local bio industry was estimated at 17.5 trillion won ($14.7 billion) in 2020, up 38.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Trade Ministry. 　It was the highest on-year growth rate to date. The bio industry’s production had been growing at a double-digit rate

　Three out of 10 workers believe that workplace bullying is still serious, even though an anti-workplace harassment law has been in place for more than two years, a survey showed.  　According to the survey conducted on 1,000 office workers, 28.9 percent of respondents said they experienced workplace harassment as of September, down 16.5 percentage points from the corresponding rate of 45.4 percent tallied in June.  　But 32.5 percent of respondents said bullying is a serious problem

　The percentage of US employers requiring workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has flattened at 36 percent, according to a Gallup poll. 　According to the Nov. 29-Dec. 5 Gallup tracking survey, 36 percent of workers said their employers are requiring COVID-19 vaccination. That was unchanged from October tracking survey results. 　Meanwhile, 55 percent of US workers supported COVID-19 vaccine requirements at work, while 35 percent of workers opposed them. 　Gallup’s tracking survey r

South Korea’s top steelmaker Posco said it was named the world’s most competitive steelmaker in a global industry report for the 12th consecutive year. In an annual assessment of 35 steelmakers worldwide, global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics gave Posco the top mark of 8.54 points out of 10, according to the South Korean company. The WSD report, which ranks the steelmakers based on 23 categories, gave top scores for Posco in eight segments, including techno

South Korea’s exports of fishery products grew 20.5 percent on-year in the first 10 months of this year, data showed. Outbound shipments of fishery products reached $2.24 billion during the January-October period, compared to $1.86 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Exports to China rose 48.1 percent to $540 million, and those to the United States and the European Union surged 24.2 percent and 39.4 percent, respectively. Sales

　North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the third most-searched politician by internet users worldwide this year, data showed . 　Online searches for Kim totaled a monthly average of 1.9 million, behind US President Joe Biden, who topped the list with 7 million searches, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with 2 million, according to German data analytics firm Statista. 　Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel ranked fourth with 1.4 million searches. 　The most-searched keyword related to the

South Korea’s exports of kimchi climbed nearly 14 percent in the first eight months of 2021 on growing overseas demand for healthier food amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed. Outbound shipments of kimchi reached $111.5 million in the January-August period, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and the food industry. In contrast, imports of kimchi shrank 9.7 percent on-year to $86.1 million over the cited period, resulting in

More than 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, UN agencies said, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world‘s worst humanitarian crises. The crisis is already bigger in scale than that facing Yemen or Syria, and worse than any food insecurity emergency apart from the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said. According to the statement issued by the World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, one in two A

　South Korea has the third-highest ratio of youth “not in education, employment or training,” or NEET youth, among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed. 　The average monthly number of NEET people aged 15-29 in the country is estimated at 1.56 million in the January-October period, according to the report from the Korea Employment Information Service. 　Of the total, 778,000 were preparing for employment or seeking jobs, with another