Samsung > Venture Total Sales 193 Trillion > Hyundai Motor Company

'Venture Full-Time Employees' Exceed 800,000... Highest Since Statistics Began
Last Year's New Venture Employment 5.6 Times More Than Top 4 Conglomerates
Total Venture Sales 193 Trillion Won, Second in Business After Samsung

Last year, the total number of full-time employees in domestic venture companies surpassed 800,000 for the first time, reaching approximately 804,000. Photo by Getty Images

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Last year, the total number of regular full-time employees in domestic venture companies surpassed 804,000 for the first time ever. Including about 7,000 non-regular workers, the total employment in venture companies reached approximately 810,000, marking the highest figure in 20 years since the national official statistics began in 1999. The total sales revenue of venture companies last year exceeded 193 trillion KRW, ranking second in the business world after Samsung Group when compared to domestic large corporations.

On the 30th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the results of the "2020 Venture Company Detailed Survey," which analyzed the management performance, employment, research and development (R&D) investment status, and industrial property rights of 36,503 venture companies (excluding preliminary ventures and those on hiatus or closed).

The most notable result from the survey is the scale of regular full-time employment in venture companies. As of the end of last year, the total number of regular full-time employees in venture companies was 803,561, an increase of about 136,000 (17.1%) compared to the previous year (686,195). The average number of employees per company was 22.0, up 15.8% from 19.0 the previous year.

The total number of regular full-time employees in venture companies (as of year-end) was approximately 758,500 in 2016, 756,800 in 2017, and 686,000 in 2018. The average number of employees per company at those times was 22.7, 21.5, and 19.0 respectively. Although there was a base effect due to the decrease in 2018, a clear new employment effect was observed last year even considering this.

In particular, the proportion of regular full-time employees in venture companies rose to 99.1% last year, up 3.1 percentage points from 96.0% the previous year, while the average number of non-regular employees per company dropped significantly to 0.2 from 0.8. This is evaluated as a major contribution to the quality and stabilization of employment. During the same period, the number of employees in the four major domestic groups, including Samsung Group, was 668,000, with new employment increasing by 21,000, contrasting with the employment effect of venture companies.

Last year, the total sales revenue of venture companies recorded 193.3204 trillion KRW, an increase of 1.4119 trillion KRW (0.7%) from the previous year (191.9085 trillion KRW). This amount is less than Samsung Group's 254 trillion KRW but exceeds Hyundai Motor Group's 179 trillion KRW, SK Group's 161 trillion KRW, and LG Group's 122 trillion KRW in domestic group sales last year.

Park Yongsun, Director of Venture Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, explained, "We were able to reaffirm that venture companies are key players in the Korean economy in terms of new job creation, job stability, and sales, and they are leading innovative growth through continuous research and development."

This survey was conducted from August to October by the Korea Venture Business Association and Korea Enterprise Data, using 2,500 companies as valid samples through a non-face-to-face method. The confidence level is 95%, with a sampling error of ±1.83%.

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