Seoul: South Korea’s real wage, adjusted for inflation, rebounded in October due to a rapid increase in nominal wages, labor ministry data showed Tuesday. The per-capita nominal monthly average wage in businesses with one or more regular employees increased by 7.2 percent from a year earlier to 4,203,000 won (2,920 U.S. dollars) in October, after a 0.7 percent growth in the previous month.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the real monthly wage rose by 4.7 percent in October on a yearly basis, reversing a reduction of 1.4 percent in September. The consumer price inflation remained close to the central bank’s inflation target of 2 percent in recent months, recording 2.2 percent in June, 1.7 percent in August, and 2.4 percent in October.

The monthly average working hours per employee in businesses declined by 8.8 percent to 138.9 hours in October compared to the same month of the previous year. The water supply, sewage and waste management, and materials recovery industry recorded the longest monthly working
hours of 155.6, followed by the real estate sector with 153.6 hours. The construction industry logged the shortest working hours of 117.5 in the cited month.