This year’s sharp increase in the minimum wage applied to all workplaces around the country is pushing many small companies to cut their payrolls to cope with labor costs.The number of people receiving unemployment benefits reached a record high of 628,433 in the first quarter of the year, according to recent data from the state-run Korea Employment Information Service.The figure marks a 6.9 percent rise from a year earlier. Government officials claim the increasing number of unemployment

SEJONG -- The number of long-term unemployed jobseekers, those unable to find work for over six months, exceeded 150,000 in the first quarter of this year, the highest tallied in 18 years, Statistics Korea said Wednesday.The latest data showed a total of 1.181 million people did not have a job in the three month period.The latest figure for people out of work for more than half a year represents an 18.8 percent increase from the same quarter of 2017. The jobless number is the highest since 159,0

South Korea and China will hold a meeting on fisheries cooperation next week, resuming the regular consultations that have been suspended for nearly two years over the neighbors' diplomatic feud, sources said Tuesday.The two countries are currently discussing details of the 10th South Korea-China meeting on fisheries cooperation to be held in China sometime next week, the diplomatic sources said.The meeting will bring together officials from the countries' foreign ministries as well as governmen

Policymakers and private economists remain different in their forecasts on how fast the Korean economy will grow this year, following last year’s expansion of 3.1 percent.Most private research institutes here expect the 2018 growth rate to hover below the government-set target of 3 percent.A monthly report released by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance last week said Korea’s economy is maintaining a recovery momentum on the back of brisk exports and increased facility investment an

The government plans to keep the growth rate of household debt to below 8.2 percent this year by taking a set of steps to curb excessive lending, the nation's top financial regulator said Monday.Outstanding household debt stood at 1,450.9 trillion won ($1.35 trillion) in the fourth-quarter of last year, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea. It marked the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2015.Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-ku told

South Korea's chief economic policymaker on Monday urged the National Assembly to quickly approve a proposed extra budget bill that is urgently needed to tackle the country's chronic youth unemployment problem.Early this month, the government unveiled a set of measures, including bolder financial and tax incentives and the use of a 3.9 trillion-won ($3.64 billion) extra budget, to respond to the high jobless rate among young people. The government submitted the supplementary budget proposal to t

High apartment prices and debt level aggravate burden of both young workers and retired seniors

Exports of cigarettes, which rank top on the list of export items tracked by South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry, plunged during the first quarter of this year. Cigarette exports totaled $210.6 million from January to March, marking a 28.3 percent drop from the same period last year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Sunday. The exports were hit hard by the United Arab Emirates’ imposition of a 100 percent special consumption ta

South Korea and Sudan held a high-level policy consultation meeting on Thursday to discuss strengthening economic cooperation in the wake of the lifting of American sanctions on Sudan last year, the foreign ministry here said.Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon welcomed the lifting of 20-year-old sanctions and discussed cooperation with Sudan's Undersecretary Abdel-ghani Elnaim, according to the ministry.In October 2017, the U.S. government dropped the economic sanctions,

Economic policymaker also stresses Seoul’s entitlement for market intervention when necessary

South Korean public institutions signed a deal to buy some 43 billion won ($40 million) worth of products made by small and medium-sized enterprises this year as part of Seoul's efforts to encourage the growth of smaller companies, the government said. Six public organizations, including the Korea Land & Housing Corp. and the Korea Electric Power Co., signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to buy new products made by SMEs, the ministry said.If companies a

South Korea's central bank on Thursday held its key rate steady for April as Asia's fourth-largest economy is experiencing low inflationary pressure and a weaker pace of economic recovery.In a widely expected move, the monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea voted to keep the policy rate unchanged at 1.5 percent, extending its wait-and-see stance to five months.In November last year, South Korea's central bank adjusted up the key rate for the first time in more than six years, citing signs of

A slump in private consumption and worsening unemployment are raising questions about the relevance of the Moon Jae-in administration’s income-led growth policy.According to data released by the Bank of Korea last week, the ratio of personal consumption expenditures to the country’s gross domestic product stood at 48.1 percent last year, the lowest since related data began being compiled in 1970.The ratio, which hovered above 70 percent in the 1970s, slid to 53.8 percent in 2000, 49.

South Korea’s unemployment rate in March hit is highest level in 17 years, amid a persisting slump in the construction industry and slowdown in population, data showed Wednesday.The number of employed people reached 26.55 million last month, up 112,000 from a year earlier, according to the report released by Statistics Korea. The on-month climb, though slightly higher from the previous month’s record of 104,000, continued to linger in the range of 100,000 for two consecutive months.T

South Korea's household lending by banks rose at the fastest clip in four months in March on increased home transactions ahead of the implementation of government-led measures to cool down the overheated real estate market, central bank data showed Wednesday.Outstanding household loans from lenders came to 776.3 trillion won ($728.6 billion) as of the end of March, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.The total marked a 4.3 trillion won increase from a month earlier, the largest on-month g