Six out of 10 South Korean companies want the incoming government of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to focus on creating jobs to support the economic recovery, a survey showed. 　Of 157 local companies, 95, or 60.5 percent, picked job creation as the top policy priority for the new government, according to the Mono Research poll commissioned by the Federation of Korean Industries, the country's top business lobby. 　The Feb. 18-March 1 survey also showed resolving social conflicts ranked second

　Fremont, California, is the happiest city in the United States, according to a new survey from WalletHub based on some 30 key indicators for happiness, ranging from depression rates to income growth and average use of leisure time each day. 　WalletHub said the coronavirus pandemic has left one-third of US residents so stressed that it‘s difficult to make basic decisions. 　WalletHub said it depended on positive-psychology research to determine the happiest among 182 of the largest US ci

　The number of registered surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor in Japan decreased by 585 in the past year, data showed.  　A civic group unveiled government statistics on medical assistance provided to people who were conscripted to work in Japan during World War II. 　The data showed the number of recipients stood at 1,815 in January, down from last year’s 2,400. Of them, 116 are women.  　The number has steadily dropped - 8,075 in 2016, 6,570 in 2017, 5,245 i

　South Korea ranked fifth in terms of global vehicle production last year, retaining the spot for the second consecutive year, amid efforts to minimize the fallout from the pandemic-caused global chip shortage, a report showed.  　The combined vehicle output by South Korean carmakers, including Hyundai Motor and Kia, reached 3.46 million units as of end-2021, down 1.3 percent from the previous year, according to the report from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.  　China

　The average monthly salary of wage earners rose 3.6 percent on-year in 2020 from a year earlier despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a government report showed. 　South Korean wage workers earned a monthly average of 3.2 million won ($2,669) in December 2020, up from 3.09 million won a year earlier, according to the report from Statistics Korea. 　The figure for workers with large companies stood at 5.29 million won, with those in smaller firms earning 2.59 million won.  　The monthly pay for m

　South Korea’s total fertility rate hit a record low last year as the number of childbirths continued to fall, data showed, underlining the country’s bleak demographic situation. 　The country’s total fertility rate - the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime - came to 0.81 last year, down from 0.84 the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. 　It marked the lowest since 1970 when the statistics agency began compiling related data. Last year marked the

　Final voter turnout for the 20th presidential election is estimated to be at 77.1 percent. 　Of the nearly 44.2 million eligible voters, more than 34 million had cast their ballots. 　The figure is 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous election in 2017, which had the highest turnout since 1997, being held after former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. 　By region, Gwangju had the highest turnout, with 81.5 percent, while Jeju had the lowest at 72.6 percent. Seoul’s turn

　More than 1 in 3 people in South Korea said competence and personality are what they look for in a presidential candidate, according to a survey from local pollster Realmeter, which asked people about the qualities they look for in a presidential candidate. 　The survey, which was conducted on Friday and Saturday last week, also showed that around 25.1 percent of people vote based on the candidate’s policy position and election pledges.  　Those people who answered that they look fo

　Political donations to lawmakers last year declined 24.3 percent from a year earlier, data from the state’s election watchdog showed.  　Financial contributions to lawmakers reached 40.7 billion won ($33.8 million) last year, down from 53.8 billion won in 2020, when the April 15 parliamentary elections were held, according to the National Election Commission. 　Lawmakers on average received 135.2 million won in donations last year, down from 179.4 million won in 2020.  　By par

　Instant noodles captured the top spot in production among food products in South Korea in 2020 on a surge in exports amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　The output of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, stood at 1.93 million metric tons in 2020, up a whopping 231 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. 　Ramyeon’s ranking in terms of production was up 12 notches from the previous year. 　Carbonated drinks ra

  The proportion of apartments bought by people in their 30s or younger reached an all-time high last year amid “panic buying” over soaring housing prices, data showed. The buyers in this age group accounted for 31 percent of the country’s total apartment sales in 2021, up from 29.2 percent in 2020, according to the data compiled by the Korea Real Estate Board. The agency began compiling the related data in 2019, and the figure for that year came to 28.3 percent. In Seo

  The local performing arts scene saw its revenue soar nearly 80 percent in 2021 from a year earlier, thanks to eased social distancing rules and a rising vaccination rate, data showed. The combined revenue of 12,000 theatrical plays, musicals, classical concerts and other performances reached 307.1 billion won ($258.1 million) last year, according to the data by the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System. The 2021 amount marked a 78.4 percent on-year surge from 172.1 billion

China's birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, official data showed, as analysts warn that faster-than-expected aging could deepen economic growth concerns. Beijing has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly aging workforce, slowing economy and the country's weakest population growth in decades. The birth rate of the world’s second-biggest economy slipped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people, according to National Bureau of Statistics data, down from

　South Korea’s filmmaking industry contracted for a second straight year in 2021 due mainly to the yearslong COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed. 　The aggregated revenue of the local film market, which includes domestic sales of movie tickets, online releases and exports, reached 1.02 trillion won ($855 million) last year, according to data from the Korean Film Council. 　It is a slight on-year decrease from the previous year’s 1.05 trillion won but marks  plunge from 2.

　The proportion of US adults identifying as LGBT has increased to a high of 7.1 percent, double the figure from 2012 when Gallup first started measuring it, reflecting a generational shift, the polling firm said. 　Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identified as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual, as part of the demographic information it collects on all its phone surveys. 　Respondents can also volunteer any other orientation or gende