By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Everyday the media issue thousands of news articles, but what actually catches the attention of office workers in Korea is information about their health.
According to the online recruitment company JobKorea, 62.3 percent of 1,315 office workers found the news headline ``Two Out of Three Office Workers Get Chronic Illness From Their Workplaces,'' most interesting. The article said that 63.2 percent of workers suffer from ulcers, stomachache or insomnia.
Coming in second for respondents who were allowed to give multiple answers, was the news ``Most Office Workers in Their 20s and 30s Prefer Civil Service or Teaching as the No. 1 Occupation.'' The news was based on another survey that showed 37.9 percent of 2,193 young workers wanted to enter public service or teaching.
The third issue was employees having a hard time at work due to their lack of English proficiency. About 57.2 percent of the respondents picked the news that 64 percent of office workers think a lack of English made their life at work difficult. According to the article, many workers felt pressured to study English because they cannot handle their job well enough owing to poor proficiency.
The news that 53.5 percent of workers never exercise was fourth on the list. Most workers recognized the necessity of regular exercise, but 53.5 percent never performed it due to irregular schedules or laziness.
An average worker at large corporations making an average 52.5 million won a year was the fifth ranked news. The article was based on a report of 89 companies among the nation's top 100 corporations.
Other news ranked on the list were ``Double Income Couples Spend an Average of 650,000 Won per Month, per Child on Childcare,'' ``45.7 Percent of Workers Check Stock Market Movements During Work Time,'' ``Three out of Ten Executives of Large Corporations are Seoul National University, Korea University or Yonsei University Graduates'' and ``Parents of 20-Something Jobseekers are Overprotective.''
``Due to the well-being trend and fierce competition in the workplaces, more workers are paying attention to their health and stress management,'' Kim Hwa-soo, the head of the recruiting company, said. ``We must not forget that English proficiency is also a big stress and expected to become bigger as more companies are pursuing globalization,'' he added.