A restaurant in Seoul is almost empty during lunch time on Aug. 31, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of small companies in South Korea edged down 0.1 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Tuesday.
The number of small businesses reached 4.11 million in 2021, down 10,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The decline was led by a fall in the retail, wholesale, and manufacturing sectors.
Small businesses refer to companies with less than 10 workers.
For some industries, including real estate and education, those with less than five workers are classified as small businesses.
Those companies employed 7.2 million workers in 2021, also down 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Their average annual sales came to 225 million won in 2021, up 2.9 percent on-year, with operating profits reaching 28 million won, up 39.8 percent.
People in their 50s accounted for 30.8 percent of small-business owners in 2021, followed by those in their 40s and 60s with 27.9 percent and 20.1 percent, the data also showed.
(Yonhap)
