KCCI: "70% of Companies Say This Year's Lunar New Year Business Conditions Worsened Compared to Last Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] It was found that 70% of domestic companies believe that the Lunar New Year business conditions this year have worsened compared to last year.

The Korea Employers Federation announced the results of the '2020 Lunar New Year Holiday Survey' conducted on 509 domestic companies on the 14th. According to the survey, 70.1% of the responding companies answered that the Lunar New Year business conditions this year have deteriorated compared to last year. Companies that responded that conditions were similar to the previous year accounted for 26.9%, while only 3% viewed the situation as improved compared to last year.

By company size, the proportion of companies that answered that business conditions worsened compared to the previous year was 66.7% for companies with 300 or more employees and 70.8% for companies with fewer than 300 employees, indicating that smaller companies tend to view the business situation more pessimistically.

Evaluation of Lunar New Year Business Conditions by Company Size This Year / Data=Korea Employers Federation

Regarding the number of days off during the Lunar New Year holiday, 80.3% of companies answered that they take '4 days' off, representing the largest proportion. This is 0.8 days less than the average holiday period of 4.8 days last year. By company size, all companies (100%) with 300 or more employees took 4 or more days off, while only 86.5% of companies with fewer than 300 employees took 4 days off.

A representative from the Korea Employers Federation stated, "In 2019, many companies had a 5-day holiday period due to the Lunar New Year holiday coinciding with the weekend," and added, "This year, since the Lunar New Year holiday overlaps with the weekend and even considering substitute holidays, the holiday period is limited to 4 days, so the majority of companies take 4 days off."

Additionally, 57.8% of responding companies said they plan to pay Lunar New Year bonuses, which is a 3.7 percentage point decrease compared to the previous year. While the proportion of companies with fewer than 300 employees planning to pay bonuses decreased, companies with 300 or more employees maintained the same level as the previous year (71.8%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.