Last Year, Both Sales and Operating Profit of Small Business Owners Decreased

Statistics Korea Announces '2019 Small Business Survey Results' on the 28th

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] It was found that small business owners had an average debt of 170 million KRW as of last year. The most frequently cited reason for management difficulties was commercial district decline (45.1%).

The Statistics Korea and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups released the results of the 2019 Small Business Owner Survey containing this information on the 28th.

As of last year, the number of small business establishments increased by 1.1% from the previous year to 2.77 million, and the number of employees increased by 1.9% to 6.44 million.

Both the number of establishments and employees showed the highest growth rate in the education service industry. Statistics Korea explained, "The education service industry increased significantly due to the rising demand for private education."

The average preparation period for starting a business was 10.2 months, less than a year. The periods of 1 to less than 2 years (28.7%) and 6 to less than 12 months (25.8%) followed in order.

The motivations for starting a business were wanting to manage their own business directly (58.4%), expecting higher income (33.3%), and difficulty finding employment (5.8%), in that order.

The average startup cost was 102 million KRW, of which the owner's contribution was 75 million KRW.

Operating profit was 33 million KRW, which is less than 3 million KRW per month. This also decreased by 3.0% compared to the previous year. Looking at operating profit, it increased in the education service industry (10.4%), but decreased significantly in repair and other services (-14.5%), lodging and food services (-7.9%), and wholesale and retail (-2.7%).

Meanwhile, this survey's figures do not reflect the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, so future indicators are expected to worsen further.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.