40% of SMEs Are Women-Owned Businesses... 5.28 Million Workers Employed

Women’s Economic Research Institute Announces ‘Status of Women-Owned Small and Medium Enterprises’

It was found that 4 out of 10 domestic companies are women-owned businesses, marking an all-time high. The number of employees was confirmed to be approximately 5.28 million.

On the 11th, the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association held the '2023 National Women CEO Management Training' at the indoor gymnasium in Jindo-gun, Jeollanam-do.
[Photo by Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association]

The Women’s Economic Research Institute (WERI) announced on the 15th the “Status of Women-Owned Small and Medium Enterprises” analyzed based on the 2021 Small and Medium Enterprise Basic Statistics, Startup Enterprise Trends, and National Business Survey.

Looking at the overall status, the number of women-owned small and medium enterprises was 3,136,543, accounting for 40.7% of the total (7,713,895). This is an increase of 6.3% (185,299) compared to the previous year.

The number of employees was 5,283,013, up 5.1% (258,238) from the previous year, and sales amounted to 564.6312 trillion KRW, an increase of 13.1% (65.3442 trillion KRW).

By industry, women-owned SMEs were concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, real estate, and accommodation and food service industries, accounting for 65.7%. The same industries accounted for 44% of male-owned SMEs.

By company size, among all women-owned businesses, micro-enterprises accounted for 97.4% (men 93.3%), indicating a predominance of small-scale companies. Regionally, both women and men ranked first in Gyeonggi (women 25.7%, men 25.8%), second in Seoul, and third in Busan.

The proportion of women-owned SMEs with a single employee was 79.9%, higher than men’s 71.9%. A WERI official explained, “Looking at the three-year average annual growth rate, women-owned SMEs with a single employee grew by 9.5%, while men-owned SMEs grew by 8.4%, showing relatively faster growth for women-owned SMEs. However, for companies with two or more employees, women-owned SMEs decreased by 4.0%, and men-owned SMEs decreased by 1.1%, indicating a trend of greater reduction in women-owned SMEs and limitations in increasing company size.”

By business age, 40.2% of women-owned SMEs were within three years of establishment, indicating many early-stage startups, whereas 43.9% of men-owned SMEs were companies older than seven years, showing a greater proportion of established businesses.

The employment share of female workers in women-owned companies was 72.0% of the total workforce, more than twice that of men-owned companies at 31.0%.

Director Lee Jeong-han said, “As the growth of women-owned businesses has recently become prominent, the Women’s Economic Research Institute will continue to monitor the status of women-owned businesses and strive to propose more effective policy directions for fostering women-owned enterprises.”

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