Last Year Service Industry Sales 3,129 Trillion Won... Record High but Growth Slows Down

Wholesale and Retail Sales Amount to 1,719 Trillion Won

Last year, the size of the service industry expanded, recording the largest scale ever since statistics began in terms of sales revenue, number of businesses, and number of employees. However, since retail and wholesale, which account for the majority of the service industry, saw a decline in sales last year, the overall sales growth rate decreased compared to the previous year.

According to the '2023 Service Industry Survey Results (Provisional)' announced by Statistics Korea on the 19th, last year's service industry sales amounted to 3,129 trillion won, an increase of 2.5% (75 trillion won) compared to the previous year. This is the largest scale since related statistics began in 1988. However, as the recent growth trend in the service industry was remarkable, the sales growth rate decreased compared to 2021 (10.8%) and 2022 (8.3%).

An official from Statistics Korea explained, "With the lifting of COVID-19 social distancing measures, service industry sales increased significantly over the past few years, but this effect eased last year." He added, "The fact that retail and wholesale, which have the largest share in the service industry, showed negative growth also had an impact."

Last year, sales increased in many service sectors such as professional, scientific, and technical services (13.2%) and accommodation and food services (8.9%), but decreased in wholesale and retail trade (-1.2%) and water supply, sewage, and waste management (-0.4%). Last year's wholesale and retail trade sales amounted to 1,719.221 trillion won, accounting for about 55% of total service industry sales.

Sales per business were 752 million won, an increase of 0.2% (2 million won) compared to the previous year. Sales per employee also rose by 0.5% (1 million won) to 219 million won.

Last year, the number of service industry businesses was 4.164 million, up 2.2% (91,000 businesses) from the previous year. The number of employees was 14.316 million, an increase of 2.0% (280,000 people). Both the number of businesses and employees recorded the highest levels since related statistics began in 1988.

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