Sluggish economy means no summer holiday for 1 in 5 Koreans

One in five workers said that they will not be able to take time off work this summer, citing a sluggish economy and excessive workload as the main reasons, according to a survey by workers education company Hunet on Tuesday. 

Hunet’s survey of 934 employees found that 21.6 percent of the respondents said they are not planning on taking summer vacations this year. The results are slightly lower compared to last year, where 25.5 percent had said they could not take a vacation.

In this year’s survey, 44.1 percent of workers claimed having little financial leeway was the top reason for not planning a summer vacation. Having too much company work followed at 34.7 percent, while 18.8 percent said they couldn’t bring up a vacation as their company was struggling.

The average vacation period was the same as last year at 4.3 days.

Roughly 66 percent said that they would choose to remain in Korea during the summer holiday.

Of the 78.4 percent of respondents who said they were taking time off, their estimated vacation cost averaged 517,000 won ($459), 23,400 won less than last year’s survey.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)