One in five South Korean employees work 54 hours or longer a week with the downtrend in weekly work hours losing steam in the 2010s, government data showed Monday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, some 5.33 million employees had a workweek of 54 hours or more in April, up 507,000 from a year earlier and accounting for 20.1 percent of the country's total workforce of 26.58 million. That translates into about 11 hours per day should they take Saturdays and Sundays off. South Korea started

Facility investments by listed companies showed signs of recovery in the first quarter this year, increasing 25.9 percent from the same period last year, a tally from the Korea Exchange on Sunday showed.Total facility investments by firms on the main and secondary bourses were logged at 1.308 trillion won ($1.158 billion) during the three months, up from 1.039 trillion won for the same months a year ago. The number of companies that increased their investments also rose from 19 last year to 30.T

US businesses based in South Korea said Sunday they will send a delegation to the White House this month to promote the benefits of the free trade agreement between Seoul and Washington as the Donald Trump administration is reviewing the five-year deal for a possible renegotiation. The delegation of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea will visit Washington from Monday to Thursday and meet high-ranking officials at the White House.  The visit came as US President Donald Trump has been

The rate of South Korean women either working or actively searching for jobs reached a record high in 2017, data showed Saturday, thanks to a rising number of married women returned to the job market.According to the data compiled by the Statistics Korea, 53 percent of women were found to be economically active this year, up 0.8 percentage points from a year earlier.This year's number is the highest since the agency started compiling data from June 1999. The figure refers to the portion of econo

Korea Investment Corp., South Korea's sovereign wealth fund, said Friday it posted $4 billion in investment gains last year. The sovereign fund -- which handles $110.8 billion in assets under management -- reported a return ratio of 4.35 percent from its investments in overseas stocks and bonds for the whole of 2016, the KIC said in a statement.  The fund's accumulated investment gains reached $15.8 billion last year.Last year, equities accounted for 41.2 percent of the KIC's overseas inves

Export-reliant Korea’s overall economic growth in past years has been clouded by a prolonged weakness in global trade, a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific stated earlier this month.While the economies of the Asia Pacific region are expected to achieve a 1.2 percentage point lower economic growth on average this year, uncertainty will be the biggest challenge for South Korea, an expert from a UN panel said Friday.According to Kilaparti Ramakrish

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles delving into the economic policies and tasks expected of the new Moon Jae-in administration. This is the third installment -- Ed.South Korea’s housing market is unlikely to see sharp rises under liberal President Moon Jae-in, who is more focused on market stabilization, real estate experts said Friday.　As opposed to the former Park Geun-hye government’s deregulatory moves, the new Moon Jae-in government is expected to tighten some r

President Moon Jae-in on Friday reaffirmed his pledge to create hundreds of thousands of quality jobs in the public sector, vowing to turn all non-regular job openings in the public sector to regular, full-time employment within his term."I will open an era of zero irregular jobs in the public sector within my term," Moon said in a meeting with workers and citizens at Incheon International Airport Corp., a key public enterprise. The meeting marked the new president's first public event

China has invited South Korea to join a forum on Beijing's regional economic development plan in what appears to be a move to mend the bilateral relationship following the inauguration of new President Moon Jae-in in Seoul, a government official said Friday.The delegation to be led by Rep. Park Byeong-seug of the Democratic Party will leave for Beijing on Saturday to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that will kick off on Sunday for a two-day run, according to the offi

The finance ministry said Friday that it will set aside a supplementary budget to help create jobs, a key campaign pledge of Presidential Moon Jae-in."We will create jobs through aggressive macroeconomic policies, including a supplementary budget," the ministry said in its monthly economy assessment report called the "Green Book." The ministry also vowed to revitalize Asia's fourth-largest economy, which is showing signs of a recovery on increased exports.It marked the first

South Korea’s tourism industry recorded a deficit of $3.74 billion as of the end of March, marking a nearly decadelong record high, due largely to drop in Chinese visitors following the ban of Korea-bound trip sales by Beijing this year.The Bank of Korea said the deficit is the largest since $3.76 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2007.The deficit reached $1.35 billion in March alone, the biggest figure in nearly two years, after Korea saw $1.47 billion in travel deficit for July 2

Both employment and unemployment rates climbed last month

South Korea's exports increased 4.5 percent in the first 10 days of May from a year earlier on brisk overseas sales of petroleum products and semiconductors, latest customs data showed Thursday.Total outbound shipments reached $9.7 billion during the cited period, up from $9.3 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The increase was led by a 117.8-percent on-year gain in exports of petroleum goods and a 43-percent surge for chi

Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn sat down with Edwin J. Feulner Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation, in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss the future of Korea-US relations, according to Hanwha officials Wednesday. The Heritage Foundation is a representative conservative think tank in the US and focuses on policy development in the areas of politics, economy, diplomacy and security. Feulner, who also served as an assistant political adviser to US President Donald Trump, is considered a le

The election of Moon Jae-in as the new president of South Korea is likely to improve corporate governance, along with Moon’s promise to reform chaebol, analysts at global investment banks said Wednesday.Goldman Sachs economist Kwon Goo-hoon said he expected corporate government to improve, along with the National Assembly’s broad support for better governance as a sound business strategy. “A more likely step toward better governance would be the adoption of the stewardship code