Average monthly income of single-person households below spending

SEJONG, June 23 (Yonhap) -- One-person households are spending more than their income on average, data showed Saturday, in a sign of economic trouble for a growing number of such households.

The average monthly income of one-person households came to 1.69 million won (US$1,520) in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The statistics office said one-person households spent 1.77 million won per month on average last year. It marked the first time that the average income of one-person households was less than their spending.

The finding suggested that single-person households on average could be in financial trouble

The fall in income of such households could be blamed on the worsening labor market conditions for young and old people.

Last year, people aged over 50 accounted for 36.7 percent of one-person households while peopled age between 15 and 29 made up 18.8 percent of such households.

The unemployment rate of people aged between 15 and 29 was 9.9 percent last year, while the rate of people aged over 60 came to 2.9 percent.

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