The average monthly pay of full-time and part-time workers increased by 3.4 percent to 3.2 million won ($2,700), according to a government survey released on Monday. The survey, which was conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on 25,000 businesses, excluding the agricultural industry, showed that the monthly pay of full-time workers increased by 3.6 percent to 3.4 million won, and the pay of part-time workers also increased by 2.1 percent to 1.4 million won. The industries with the hi

  

Banks share of Korea’s household loan market has fallen to the lowest-ever level as stricter screening regulations have prompted more people to turn to nonbanking lenders, Bank of Korea data showed Saturday. The central bank said that private sector debt, excluding credit card spending, tallied at 569.3 trillion won ($482.5 billion) at end-March, and loans by local banks accounted for 49.1 percent of the total. It is the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2002, when the central bank first releas

The wage gap between small businesses and conglomerates is widening, indicating increased polarization between the two groups, according to a report released by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business on Wednesday. The number of SMEs reached 3.54 million, 99.9 percent of all businesses in Korea, in 2014, a 15.5 percent increase from 2009, during which there were about 3.06 million firms. SMEs employed 14.02 million people in 2014, about 87.9 percent of the total workforce of 15.96 mill

  

Fine dust concentration reaches alarming levels when cooking food on stoves using oil without proper ventilation, the Environment Ministry said.The ministry said it measured the concentration level of PM2.5 -- the fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter -- that build up while cooking on a stove at 32 sample houses and calculated the average.The tests showed that after some 10 minutes of pan-frying mackerels the level of PM2.5 surged to 2,290㎍㎥. This is a 76-fold denser t

Gasoline prices in the nation are steadily rising in line with global oil prices that are showing signs of increase, data showed Sunday. The average price of gasoline was 1,393.79 won per liter on May 20, an increase of 2.05 won from the previous day, according to the Korea National Oil Corp.’s oil price information system Opinet. The average diesel price also increased by 3.34 won to 1,165.76 won per liter.Oil prices are expected to increase to $60 per barrel next year after hitting a low of $2

Overseas card spending by South Koreans hit $3.3 billion in January-March, the highest figure recorded for the first quarter, government data showed Sunday.According to the Bank of Korea, overseas spending – using credit cards, debit cards and direct payment cards -- in the first three months this year rose 2.7 percent year-on-year from $3.2 billion a year earlier.The number of Koreans who traveled overseas jumped 18.3 percent to 5.56 million in the first quarter from a year earlier, according t

Korean chipmakers, hit hard by falling prices and stiffer competition, are struggling to restore profits from their dynamic random access memory chip sales. According to the data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange, Samsung Electronics, the nation’s largest chipmaker, logged $3.97 billion in its first quarter sales, down 16.6 percent from the previous quarter. Sales of SK hynix also fell 19.2 percent to $2.32 billion during the same period. Samsung’s market share remained flat at 46.6 perc

PARIS (AP) - Tens of thousands of French well-wishers waved goodbye to the largest cruise ship in the world as it set sail on its maiden voyage to the U.K. after 32 months in a French shipyard.The $1 billion Harmony of the Seas cut a gargantuan silhouette Sunday as it left the western port town of Saint-Nazaire.At 362 meters long, the 16-deck ship is bigger than the Eiffel Tower and holds the record for being the widest cruise ship ever built -- boasting a 6,360-passenger capacity.It has been co

Global and local organizations continued to make downward revisions on South Korea’s growth outlook amid sluggish economic data at home and abroad.Most recently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its 2016 growth forecast of Asia’s fourth-largest economy to 2.7 percent from 3.1 percent, citing sluggish global trade and a slowdown in China.The International Monetary Fund lowered its 2016 growth estimate for Korea to 2.7 percent, and the Bank of Korea also revised down i

The shipbuilding industry is unlikely to see any improvement this year, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea on Monday. The industry will most likely start to recover in 2017 and subsequently stabilize in 2018, as the global shipbuilding industry has continued to perform poorly in the first quarter of this year.Compared with last year’s first quarter performance, the quantity of ship orders dropped by 71 percent to 2.3 million compensated gross tonnage -- an indicator of the amount of wo

The cost that South Korea will have to bear upon inter-Korea unification is likely to stand at $1 trillion, by conservative estimation, according to U.K. weekly The Economist.But the nation will also benefit from the influx of population that is younger and almost twice as more productive, a demographic boon for South Korea’s shrinking working-age population, it said.If unified, the South expects to embrace the North’s abundant rare earth reserves, which are used in electronic production, accord

Koreans traveled more frequently within the country last year compared to the year before, according to a travel survey report released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.In 2015, about 87.9 percent of the population aged over 15 made trips within the country, a 1.6 percent increase from 2014. An average Korean citizen travels 5.47 times a year for the combined duration of 9.34 days and spends an average of 582,770 won ($500). The survey was conducted on 6,534 Korean citizens, aged o

Global ship orders from January to April this year dropped by two-thirds to a total of 114 vessels, according to global shipping information provider Clarksons Research on Tuesday. In the same period last year, 473 vessels were ordered.Of the 114 vessels ordered so far this year, China obtained 59 vessel orders, taking 49.3 percent of all global ship orders. China’s compensated gross tonnage — an indicator of the amount of work necessary to build a ship — was 1.9 million. Meanwhile, Korea secure