Accommodation and Food Service Workers Decrease by 100,000 Over 5 Years... Impact of COVID-19 and Contactless Orders

Statistics Korea Announces '2020 Economic Census Results'

On the 22nd, a business owner is updating the menu with increased prices at a restaurant in downtown Seoul, where self-employed individuals are struggling due to soaring inflation. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Due to social distancing and the expansion of non-face-to-face orders caused by COVID-19, the number of workers in the accommodation and food service industry has decreased by nearly 100,000 over the past five years. The operating profit margin of the accommodation and food service industry also dropped by about 8 percentage points during the same period.

On the 28th, Statistics Korea announced the results of the '2020 Economic Census'.

The total number of businesses in South Korea was 6,032,000 as of the end of 2020, an increase of 18.2% (929,000 businesses) compared to 2015. The total number of workers was 24,813,000, up 9.1% (2,064,000 people) from 2015.

Looking at the increase in the number of businesses by industry, only mining decreased (-300 businesses), while all other industries increased, including wholesale and retail trade (181,000 businesses), construction (107,000 businesses), and accommodation and food service (98,000 businesses). The number of workers increased in health and social welfare (731,000 people) and construction (437,000 people), but decreased in accommodation and food service (-97,000 people) and manufacturing (-62,000 people).

Total sales amounted to 671.1 trillion won, an increase of 18.4% (104.4 trillion won) compared to five years ago. Sales per business increased by 0.2% (2.1 million won) to 1.1125 billion won, and sales per worker increased by 8.6% (21.4 million won) to 270.5 million won during the same period.

The overall operating profit margin was 6.6%, up 0.2 percentage points from 6.4% in 2015. By industry, financial and insurance services (up 3.6 percentage points) and real estate (up 3.5 percentage points) saw increases, while accommodation and food service (down 7.9 percentage points) and associations and other services (down 5.4 percentage points) declined. By business size, the operating profit margin of small businesses with 1 to 4 employees fell by 1.4 percentage points from 10.1% to 8.7%.

The number of businesses engaged in digital platform transactions was 296,000, accounting for 11.6% of all businesses and 4.9% of total transaction volume. Among these, the accommodation and food service industry accounted for 18.4% of all businesses and 9.8% of total transaction volume, the highest proportion among all industries.

The number of businesses that introduced unmanned payment devices (kiosks) was 30,000, representing 1.6% of all businesses. The proportion of delivery sales businesses was 28.8%, and their sales accounted for 25.0% of total sales.