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South Korea's monthly birth figures have now risen year on year for 22 consecutive months, a streak that began in July 2024 and has continued through this spring. April births totaled 24,521, up 18.0 percent from a year earlier and the fastest April increase since comparable records began in 1981. The total fertility rate climbed to 0.93, still far below the 2.1 needed to keep the population stable, but a marked improvement from the 0.72 low recorded in 2023.

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South Korea's Minimum Wage Commission is racing toward its mid-July deadline to set the hourly minimum wage that will take effect on January 1, 2027, with labor and management proposals now separated by just 690 won. As of July 9, the labor bloc was holding at 11,220 won an hour while business representatives offered 10,530 won, a gap of roughly 50 cents at current exchange rates but a wide one in the context of Korea's annual wage ritual.

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South Korea's Ministry of Justice announced on July 1 that it will bring in 16,915 additional foreign seasonal workers in the second half of 2026, aiming to ease chronic labor shortages in farming and fishing communities. The decision, made a day earlier at a meeting of the ministry's seasonal worker policy council, pushes the total number of seasonal workers allocated for the year to 117,113, an increase of 21,517 over last year's 95,596.

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