South Korea has witnessed a large drop in new jobs despite economic expansion in the past two years, government data showed Tuesday.The number of jobs created per 1 percent growth of gross domestic product this year is expected to be half the figure seen in 2012, according to data from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Statistics Korea.(123rf)The government forecasted that Korea’s GDP would grow 2.6 percent and create about 260,000 new jobs this year. This translates to 100,000 jobs per 1

New foreign direct investment pledged to South Korea increased 1.9 percent on-year to hit a record high in 2016 thanks to a rise in investment in the service segment, the government said Tuesday.New FDI pledges came to $21.3 billion last year, up from the previous record of $20.9 billion set in 2015, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The ministry said the amount of new FDI in the country had surpassed the $20-billion mark for two years in a row.Last year's jump was attribu

International air cargo shipped to and from South Korea via its Incheon International Airport climbed to a new annual high in 2016, despite a significant drop in the country's overall imports and exports, the government said Tuesday.The amount of international cargo processed at the Incheon airport, the main gateway to Seoul, came to a little over 2.71 million tons last year, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.The amount accounts f

South Korea's economic growth is not creating as many jobs as before, government analysis indicated Tuesday, saddling the country with bad news when growth projections are being marked down.Numbers provided by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Statistics Korea show the government expects 2.6 percent economic expansion in 2017 with around 260,000 new jobs, translating to 100,000 people being newly employed per 1 percent economic growth.Such ratio is about half of what it used to be five ye

The average annual salary of public regular workers in 2015 exceeded 70 million won ($57,899) for the first time after a near 5 percent increase, and their fringe benefits that were supposed to be curtailed were brought back, a parliamentary report showed Tuesday.A report from the National Assembly Budget Office said the average yearly pay at 119 public and state-invested agencies came to just over 70 million won. It is 4.9 percent higher than the previous year, the biggest hike rate since 2012.

Data released by the Bank of Korea last week showed surplus funds held by the country’s households are rapidly decreasing, while corporations sit on a mounting amount of cash reserves.Excess funds held by local households and nonprofit organizations, including consumer and charity groups, totaled 1.9 trillion won ($1.57 billion) in the third quarter of this year, down from 14.1 trillion won in the previous quarter. It marked the smallest sum since the BOK began compiling relevant data in 2009, b

Some 3,000 people started their own business per day in 2014, but two-thirds of them had closed down a year later, statistics from the National Tax Service showed Monday.Based on the number of new businesses who filed value-added taxes for the first time in 2015, close to 1.07 million people became self-employed on a daily average in 2014. But by the following year, 739,000 people had closed down their shops, an average of 2,000 per day, the tally showed.The kinds of new businesses were heavily

The South Korean economy has opened 2017 on a gloomy note, with the government cutting the economic growth forecast to 2.6 percent at the end of last year.The vacancy of the state leader since President Park Geun-hye was impeached and the ensuing political uncertainties as to when the next presidential election will take place are cited by economists as the biggest risk to the economy.On the external front, the anticipated rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and President-elect Donald Trump’s p

South Korea’s economy has started 2017 with discouraging figures showing sluggish exports, pessimistic consumer sentiment, heavier debt and a high unemployment rate.According to government data released on Sunday morning, exports, the key pillar of the Asia’s fourth-largest economy, declined for the second consecutive year in 2016 amid a sluggish global demand and low oil prices. This is the first time in 58 years that exports witnessed losses in two consecutive years.Korea’s exports fell 5.9 pe

South Korea's exports fell 5.9 percent last year from a year earlier due largely to a drop in global demand and weak oil prices, government data showed Sunday.The country's exports reached $495.5 billion in 2016, while its imports dropped 7.1 percent on-year to $405.7 billion, according to the data released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Its trade surplus stood at $89.8 billion last year, down slightly from $90.3 billion tallied in 2015, the data showed.It is the first time in 58

Forty-two percent of South Korean households believe their economic conditions will deteriorate next year, according to a survey by Gallup Korea released Friday. The survey suggested that South Korea's consumer confidence has sharply eroded amid uncertainties in the troubled shipping and shipbuilding sectors, and an ongoing influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye. In comparison, last year's survey showed that 25 percent of households expected their economic conditions to wor

South Korea's consumer prices rose more than 1 percent for the fourth consecutive month in December on high prices of fresh groceries, government data showed Friday. The country's consumer price index rose 1.3 percent last month from a year earlier, down 0.2 percentage point from the previous month's 1.5 percent on-year gain, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.The inflation has stayed over the 1 percent level since September, when it snapped the growth of less than 1 percent betw

Nearly 600,000 employees received a nine-figure salary last year, up 13.3 percent from the previous year, the National Tax Service said Wednesday.The average salary of employees in South Korea was about 32.5 million won ($26,900)The increase rate of the number of nine-figure salary earners had reached as high as 42.3 percent in 2010, but the rate has remained at around 10 percent since 2012. They took up 3.4 percent of the entire workers who had their year-end tax adjusted last year.By region, w

By Kum Gi-hyunsecretary-general of Korea Entrepreneurship FoundationSouth Korea needs to boost its entrepreneurship to prepare its economy for the future and adjust to changes, as it is facing a looming crisis due to external and internal factors. The spread of entrepreneurship is imperative for an economy to grow and develop, according to German nonprofit research organization Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and a report by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an organization which studies entrepreneurship

The South Korean government Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the economy next year to 2.6 percent, citing worsening employment conditions and contraction in domestic consumption. It was a 0.4 percentage point cut from a previous 3 percent forecast made in June, but still higher than recent projections by private economic institutions.The projection marks the third consecutive year of low growth, following 2.6 percent growth in 2015 and 2016. “We are seeing signs of slowing domestic consu