'Solo Business' Self-Employed Increased for 29 Consecutive Months

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] The number of self-employed individuals operating alone without employees has increased for 29 consecutive months. This is interpreted as self-employed people being forced into a situation where it is difficult to hire workers such as part-timers due to the impact of minimum wage hikes and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic lasting over a year and a half.

According to Statistics Korea on the 17th, the number of 'self-employed without employees' last month was 4.3 million, an increase of 112,000 compared to the same month last year. This marks 29 consecutive months of growth since February 2019 (3.876 million), setting a record longer than the 1990s foreign exchange crisis and the 2000s global financial crisis.

On the other hand, the number of self-employed with employees or part-timers last month was the lowest in 31 years. The number of self-employed with employees was 1.28 million, down 84,000 from the same month last year. This is the lowest figure since 1990 (1.196 million) as of June.

This means that as the economy worsened, self-employed individuals either let go of part-timers or chose to operate without any employees. Since the sharp increase in the minimum wage in 2018, the burden of labor costs has increased, accelerating this trend. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic further deteriorated the situation.

On the other hand, there is also analysis that this reflects a trend of changing forms of self-employment, as the use of automated ordering systems in stores has increased due to recent digitalization, and non-face-to-face delivery-oriented operations have become more active, leading to businesses operating without employees in stores.

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