South Korea’s number of companies rise 18% over past five years

The number of companies in South Korea rose by almost 18% over the past five years, showed data from Statistics Korea. 

As of end-2020, the country registered a total of 6,013,000 businesses, an increase of 17.8% from five years earlier. 

By sector, the retail and wholesale industry recorded the largest increase of 176,000, followed by the construction sector, at 106,000, and the hospitality sector, at 99,000.

Altogether, companies in these sectors hired a total 24.83 million workers as of end-2020, an increase of 8.9% from five years earlier.

One-man operations accounted for the biggest proportion of registered businesses, at 79%, followed by companies, at 15.4%, and other establishments, at 5.6%. 

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As of end-2020, women helmed some 2.307 million businesses, or 36.7% of the total, up 0.6 percentage point from five years earlier, writes Yonhap News Agency.