SME Count Jumps by 200,000, But Employment Edges Up by Just 7,000... 78% Are Solo Businesses

While the number of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased by 200,000 from the previous year in 2024, the number of employees showed a meager increase of just 7,000.

According to the Basic SME Statistics released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups today (August 31), the number of SMEs stood at 8,499,552 as of 2024, an increase of 200,637 (2.4%) from the previous year.

The number of SME employees rose by 7,157 (0.04%) to 19,124,806, while sales increased by 22.9475 trillion won (0.7%) to 3,324.0202 trillion won.

SMEs accounted for 99.9% of all enterprises, 80.4% of total employment, and 43.7% of total sales.

By industry, the number of businesses increased in wholesale and retail by 38,232 (1.7%), real estate by 31,651 (2.6%), electricity, gas, and steam supply by 26,511 (15.8%), professional, scientific, and technical services by 20,934 (6.3%), and other personal service activities by 20,328 (4.7%).

Conversely, the number of businesses decreased in manufacturing by 5,715 (0.9%), business facilities management by 3,305 (1.7%), and accommodation and food services by 1,770 (0.2%).

Wholesale and retail accounted for the largest share of total SMEs at 26.3%, followed by real estate (14.9%) and accommodation and food services (10.5%).

Employment increased in 11 industries, led by human health and social work activities with an increase of 37,705 (5.0%) and electricity, gas, and steam supply with 26,451 (15.1%).

It decreased in 7 industries, including construction, which dropped by 66,181 (3.5%), and wholesale and retail, which fell by 39,600 (1.0%).

Sales by industry grew in manufacturing by 9.4 trillion won (1.1%), transportation and storage by 8.1 trillion won (5.6%), and human health and social work activities by 7.8 trillion won (8.6%).

Sales declined in construction by 11.5 trillion won (3.2%) and real estate by 7.1 trillion won (6.7%).

By region, SMEs located in the capital area numbered 4,477,130, up 2.6% from the previous year, while non-capital area SMEs totaled 4,022,422, a 2.2% increase.

In the capital area, Gyeonggi Province saw the largest increase (89,629), followed by Incheon (15,760) and Seoul (9,562). In non-capital regions, the largest increases were recorded in North Jeolla Province (12,806), South Chungcheong Province (12,709), and North Gyeongsang Province (10,981).

By organizational form, sole proprietorships rose 2.3% from the previous year to 7,411,042, and corporate businesses increased 3.1% to 1,088,510.

Sole proprietorships accounted for 87.2% of all SMEs.

By employment size, solo businesses with a single owner-operator reached 6,666,023, up 3.5% from the previous year.

On the other hand, businesses with two or more employees decreased by 1.4% to 1,833,529.

Solo businesses accounted for 78.4% of all SMEs, while making up 34.9% of total employment and 17.5% of total sales, respectively.

(Photo provided by Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.