SeoulMarketsData journalism on Korean equities, currencies, bonds, commodities and macroeconomics — sourced from official Korean government open data, published in English.https://seoulmarkets.comen-us© 2026 SeoulMarketsHow long each Korean industry keeps the people it hires, from 16 years down to under fourhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-how-long-industries-keep-workershttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-how-long-industries-keep-workersListed companies file their workers' average tenure in their own annual reports. Weight it by headcount and rank Korea's 44 biggest industries: carmakers hold people 16 years, research firms under four.Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-06T00:00:00.000ZEquitieshuman capitalcorporate disclosurelabourtenureindustryHow much of a Korean company's life does its average worker see? At most two-fifths of ithttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-is-partly-company-agehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-is-partly-company-ageLong tenure and old firms go together at 0.66 — the tenure ladder is partly an age ladder. Measured against firm age, no sector's workers have stayed even half the company's life; research looks churny only because its firms are young.Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-06T00:00:00.000ZEquitieshuman capitalcorporate disclosuretenurecompany ageindustryIn Korea, the industries that hold their workers longest are mostly the ones that pay them mosthttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-tracks-payhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-tracks-payRank 44 listed industries by how long they keep people and by what they pay, and the two line up at 0.67. Long-tenure sectors pay 1.7 times the high-churn ones — but retail keeps people cheaply, and research pays for talent it cannot keep.Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-06T00:00:00.000ZEquitieshuman capitalpaycorporate disclosuretenureindustryIn Korea, bigger employers pay more — and the pension data shows it rising at every single step.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-bigger-firms-pay-more-every-stephttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-bigger-firms-pay-more-every-stepSort 554,570 workplaces by headcount and the national-pension bill per worker climbs monotonically: 291,760 won at the smallest firms, 456,315 at the largest. No band breaks the ladder. The size premium is 1.56x.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourfirm sizepaynational pensionmethodologyEight Korean brokers publish fractional-share lists. Only 46 stocks are buyable at all eight.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-fractional-shares-broker-lotteryhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-fractional-shares-broker-lotteryThe industry body posts each broker's list of stocks you can own in fractions. Put the eight side by side and the longest list turns out to be mostly sell-only — and 1,202 of the 2,586 listed stocks cannot be bought in fractions anywhere.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-02-26T15:00:00.000ZEquitiesfractional sharesbrokeragesretail investingmarket structurekoreaKorea has 183,351 registered funds, and the factory that makes them is slowing down.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-fund-factory-slowinghttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-fund-factory-slowingNew fund registrations peaked in 2020 near 6,000 a year and have roughly halved since. What Korea launches is mostly derivatives and bonds — equity funds are one in ten. Among funds that name a country, America outnumbers China two to one.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-04T15:00:00.000ZFundsfundsasset managementfund launcheskoreaKorea's import prices rose 9% in the seller's currency and 20% in won. The gap is the exchange rate.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-import-prices-won-did-the-workhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-import-prices-won-did-the-workPriced in the currency each contract is written in, Korea's imports cost 9.1% more over the year to June. In won they cost 19.7% more. The 33-point gap between the two indices is not the goods getting dearer — it is the won getting weaker.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZCommoditiesimport pricesinflationwonexchange ratekoreaIn one Korean province, workers leave the payroll fastest — and it pays the least.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-job-separation-map-jeju-churnshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-job-separation-map-jeju-churnsEach month a share of enrolled workers drops out of workplace pension coverage. On the tourism island of Jeju it is 4.28%; in research-heavy Daejeon, 3.12%. Across regions, higher pay and lower churn move together.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourturnoverregionalnational pensionmethodologyEvery kind of Korean bank loan turned more variable this year. Companies moved fastest.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-loans-turned-variablehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-loans-turned-variableThe fixed-rate share of outstanding bank loans fell across corporates, households and mortgages over the year to June. Companies led it, dropping nearly eight points to 31%. Mortgages stayed the most fixed, at 63%.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZRatesinterest ratesbank loansfixed vs floatinghouseholdskoreaMarket value per employee ranges 3,100-fold across Korean firms. Almost all of it is an artifact.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-market-cap-per-worker-artifacthttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-market-cap-per-worker-artifactDivide a company's market cap by its staff and the spread is absurd — 3,100 times. Remove the holding companies and pre-revenue biotech, and what survives is a 17-fold gap between industries: capital intensity, not what anyone produced.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-04T15:00:00.000ZEquitiesmarket capemployeescapital intensityvaluationkoreaThe older an industry's firms, the fewer workers it loses. In Korea the link is strong.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-older-industries-churn-lesshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-older-industries-churn-lessAcross 105 industries, average firm age and monthly separation rate move inversely, with a correlation of -0.61. Banks are old and stable; construction is young and churns. Stability, it turns out, has an age.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourindustryfirm ageturnovermethodologyKorea's oldest workplaces are its banks. Its youngest are building sites and coffee shops.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-oldest-workplaces-banks-youngest-building-siteshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-oldest-workplaces-banks-youngest-building-sitesMeasured by years enrolled in the pension system, domestic banks average 33 and credit unions 32. Earthmoving and electrical-wiring contractors average barely two. An industry's age maps how it is built.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourindustryfirm agenational pensionmethodologyKorea's pay map doesn't put Seoul on top. A shipbuilding city does.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-pension-map-ulsan-tops-seoulhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-pension-map-ulsan-tops-seoulAveraged across every enrolled workplace, the national-pension bill is highest in Ulsan, not the capital. Top to bottom, the regional spread is just 1.21x — the smallest of the axes that move Korean pay.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourwagesregionalnational pensionmethodologyKorea's smallest firms lose workers 1.6x as fast as its largest. The pay ladder runs the other way.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-small-firms-churn-big-firms-holdhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-small-firms-churn-big-firms-holdEach month, small workplaces shed 4.29% of their enrolled workers; the biggest shed 2.66%. Hiring falls with size too. The firm that pays the most also holds onto people the longest.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourfirm sizeturnovernational pensionmethodologySix in ten formally employed Koreans work in the capital region. It barely pays more.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-workers-concentrate-in-seoul-pay-doesnthttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-workers-concentrate-in-seoul-pay-doesntThe Seoul metro area holds 61.2% of enrolled workers on a footprint that pays a 1.21x premium at most — and less than that once the pension ceiling and Seoul's rents are taken into account. The pull isn't the paycheque.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacrolabourconcentrationregionalnational pensionSeoulKorea's convertibles create new shares at a 24% discount. Cash raises, 12%.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-convertible-dilution-discounthttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-convertible-dilution-discountMeasured against the market price on the day the shares are created, convertibles dilute at a 23.8% discount and cash raises at 12.5%. Control for the 456 companies that used both and the convertible still discounts 7.7 points deeper.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-04T15:00:00.000ZEquitiesequity issuanceconvertible bondsdilutiondiscount to marketkoreaKorea's pension bill sorts 11.6 million workers into a pay ladder. Top to bottom, 2.3 times.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-pension-bill-pay-ladderhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-pension-bill-pay-ladderEvery employer is billed 9% of a worker's pay for the national pension, up to a ceiling. Rank Korea's 41 biggest industries by that bill per head and imaging-equipment plants sit 2.3 times above employment agencies.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZMacronational pensionwageslabourindustrykoreaKorea runs a $188bn trade surplus. Almost none of it is with China.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-trade-surplus-not-chinahttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-trade-surplus-not-chinaChina is Korea's biggest partner both ways, and the two nearly cancel — a $9bn surplus on $330bn of trade. The surplus is earned from the US, Vietnam and a Hong Kong that forwards most goods on. The deficits are oil, gas and machinery.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-06-29T15:00:00.000ZFXtradetrade balanceexportschinakoreaOne in three Korean listed companies files its headcount in pieces. Forty-two add it up.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-headcount-disclosure-has-no-total-rowhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-headcount-disclosure-has-no-total-rowThe employee table in a Korean annual report carries no required total. Read only the first row — as we did until yesterday — and 482,227 people disappear from a sample of 853,817.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-05T00:00:00.000ZEquitiescorporate disclosurehuman capitaldata qualitymethodologyKorean firms with more women underperformed by 17 points last year. Control for industry and the gap vanishes.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-and-returns-industry-mixhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-and-returns-industry-mixAcross 2,573 listed companies, staff tenure and female share both look like they predict returns — in opposite directions. They are the same fact counted twice. One survives an industry control; the other does not.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZEquitiesworkforceemployee tenuregenderkorean equitiesindustry effectsKorean analysts didn't just stop saying sell. They stopped saying hold.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-analysts-stopped-saying-holdhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-analysts-stopped-saying-holdAcross 55,580 rated broker reports since 2014, the neutral rating has fallen from 9.7% to 3.3% of all calls. The collapse happened in two steps, in 2018 and 2020, and it shows up inside individual firms — not just in the market average.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T14:59:00.000ZEquitiesequity researchanalyst ratingsmarket structureretail investorsChina is Korea's biggest trading partner. Its yuan futures are 0.03% of the market.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-currency-futures-one-contracthttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-currency-futures-one-contractAcross 629 trading days, 99.0% of Korean currency-futures turnover was one contract: the dollar. The exchange also lists 1,272 flexible-dated dollar futures that have never traded once.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZFXcurrency futureswonyuanmarket structurekorea exchangeA Korean ETF above its stated value falls back tomorrow — unless it holds Asian stocks, in which case it riseshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-etf-premium-means-two-different-thingshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-etf-premium-means-two-different-thingsAcross 605,072 fund-days, a premium on a domestic or US-tracking ETF predicts a 0.48-point underperformance tomorrow. On an Asia-tracking synthetic fund it predicts a 0.32-point gain. Same number, opposite meaning.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZEquitiesetfnet asset valuepremium discountsynthetic etfkorean fundsKorea's exchange-traded gold has fallen 31% since January, and the small-lot contract is busier than everhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-exchange-gold-down-from-january-peakhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-exchange-gold-down-from-january-peakSix and a half years of Korea Exchange gold prints: up 228% overall, up 60% in 2025, then down 30.9% from a peak set on 29 January. Turnover in the 100-gram contract is running 72% above last year through the whole decline.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZCommoditiesgoldcommoditieskorea exchangeretail investorsfuel pricesFour of Korea's ten best-paying listed companies employ fewer than 200 peoplehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-listed-pay-holding-company-traphttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-listed-pay-holding-company-trapEvery listed company files its average pay per employee. Read the ranking without checking headcount and you will misread what it measures — four of the top ten are head offices, not workforces.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-04T00:00:00.000ZEquitiescompensationcorporate disclosureholding companieshuman capitalKorea's provinces all borrow at the same price — the gaps are empty order bookshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-provincial-bonds-price-identicallyhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-provincial-bonds-price-identicallySeventeen regional governments issue near-identical bonds. In the vintages that actually trade, the widest gap between any two provinces is 3.2 basis points — narrower than the day-to-day swing inside a single province's own bond.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-07-31T09:00:00.000ZRatesbondslocal governmentcredit spreadsliquiditykoreaIn 76 percent of Korea's large listed companies, men stay longer than womenhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-gender-gaphttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-tenure-gender-gapCompanies file average tenure by gender in their own annual reports. Across 1,836 listed firms employing 1.81 million people, the weighted gap is 2.11 years — and it is widest in the industries Korea exports.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-04T00:00:00.000ZEquitieshuman capitalcorporate disclosurelabourgender gapThe KOSPI has moved more than 3% on 53 days this year. The five years before it managed 20.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/kospi-2026-volatility-regimehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/kospi-2026-volatility-regimeKorea's benchmark is down 31.3% from its 22 June peak and still up 48.5% on the year. The drawdown is the smaller story: the average daily move has tripled, and July alone had ten sessions above 5%.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZEquitieskospivolatilitykorean equitiesdrawdownmarket structureKorean banks are up 6% since the KOSPI peaked. The index is down 31% because it is 60% semiconductors.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/kospi-is-a-semiconductor-indexhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/kospi-is-a-semiconductor-indexOf 160 tradeable Korea Exchange indices, twelve have risen since 22 June. Electronics is 60.1% of KOSPI market capitalisation, fell 38.7%, and dragged the benchmark with it. Banks, pharma and staples never joined the fall.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-08-03T09:00:00.000ZEquitieskospisemiconductorssector rotationmarket concentrationkorean equitiesKorean brokerages posted 26,051 stock reports in three years. Twenty-six said sell.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/twenty-six-sell-ratingshttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/twenty-six-sell-ratingsA complete census of every company report published to Korea's most-read retail research board finds sell ratings at 0.114 percent — one for every 838 buys. Thirteen of the twenty firms never issued a single one.Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-07-31T14:59:00.000ZEquitiesequity researchanalyst ratingsmarket structureretail investorsKorea publishes two housing numbers. They routinely disagree, and both are right.https://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-housing-two-numbers-that-disagreehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/korea-housing-two-numbers-that-disagreeTransaction records say what actually sold. The official index says which way the market moved. In a thin market these diverge — and the gap is the story, not an error in either.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-07-31T15:00:00.000ZMacrohousingreal estatemethodologyindex constructionWho watches Korea's private fund managers? Less of the market than you would thinkhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/who-watches-korean-private-fund-managershttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/who-watches-korean-private-fund-managersA licensed manager can run hundreds of billions of won, trade listed shares daily on its own account, and disclose none of it in a form the public can search. Here is exactly where the record stops.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-07-31T15:00:00.000ZFundsdisclosureprivate fundsasset managersregulationmethodologyWhy the Korean market numbers you can legally read are always a day oldhttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/why-korean-market-data-arrives-a-day-latehttps://seoulmarkets.com/article/why-korean-market-data-arrives-a-day-lateThe data this site publishes settles on a one-business-day lag — not by editorial choice but because that is what the redistributable sources release. One exception changes what is possible.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT2026-07-31T15:00:00.000ZMacromethodologymarket datadisclosureDART