SeoulMarkets · tag
macro
10 stories tagged “macro”, each from official Korean data with its source and timestamp.
Koreans work fewer days, not shorter days
Korea's monthly work time fell 13% since 2011 — but the working day barely shortened (8.33 to 8.05 hours). The drop is fewer days: 21.2 to 19.1 a month.
Korea sells to and buys from different countries
Korea's export map and import map don't match. Hong Kong is 6.7% of exports but 0.6% of imports; Japan is 7.5% of imports but 3.5% of exports.
Korea's temp workers earn 39% of what regular staff make
A temp or daily worker's monthly pay has held near 40% of a regular employee's since 2011 — 1.74m won against 4.47m in 2025. It has barely moved.
An eighth of Korean pay is bonus — lumped into a few months
Special payments are about 12–15% of a regular worker's yearly pay in Korea — and nearly a third of the year's total lands in December and January alone.
Korean overtime has fallen by nearly a third since 2011
Average monthly overtime for a regular worker dropped from 11.5 hours in 2011 to 8.1 in 2025 — a 30% fall, on Korea's own establishment survey.
Koreans now work 13% fewer hours than in 2011
The average worker's monthly hours fell from 176.6 in 2011 to 153.8 in 2025 — a steady 13% drop, measured on Korea's own establishment survey.
Korea's real wages climbed for a decade, then went flat
Korea's real monthly wage rose ~24% from 2011 to 2021 — then stalled. In the four years since, it is up just 0.2%. The 2020s look nothing like the 2010s.
Korea's youth unemployment has quietly fallen since 2016
Korea's youth (15–29) jobless rate peaked at 9.8% in 2016 and fell to 6.1% by 2025 — about twice the national rate. But a falling rate is not only good news.
Korea's 2026 trade surplus 'tripled.' We don't buy it.
Korea's trade surplus seems to jump 5x in a year. But exports step up 29% in one month while every partner keeps its share — a measurement break, not a boom.
Korea's leading indicator has climbed for a year. Its coincident gauge has barely moved.
Statistics Korea's leading cyclical index rose every month for a year, 100.0 to 105.7, yearly growth doubling to 8.8%. The coincident gauge — the here-and-now — sat flat near 100. The forward signal is loud, the present quiet. Not advice.