SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's nonwage workers such as the self-employed reduced for the past year amid the falling number of the self-employed hiring employees, statistical office data showed Tuesday.
The number of unsalaried workers, which include the one-man self-employed, the self-employed hiring employees and the family-run businesses, was 6,799,000 as of August, down 0.9 percent, or 62,000, from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The figure continued to slide for the second consecutive year as the self-employed hiring workers declined for the past year.
The number of the self-employed hiring employees was 1,535,000 as of August, down 7.0 percent, or 116,000, from the same month of last year. It was the fastest reduction since August 1998 when the Asian foreign exchange crisis hit the South Korean economy.
The one-man self-employed hiring no employee increased 2.4 percent to 4,127,000 in the cited period.
Those who served the family-run businesses without pay contracted 3.7 percent to 1,138,000 in the period.
The worsening domestic demand aggravated business conditions especially for retailers and manufacturers, leading to the reduced number of nonwage workers, the statistical office said.
The number of unsalaried workers in the wholesale and retail sector declined 55,000 to 1,379,000 in the cited period, while the figures for the manufacturing and construction industries reduced by 29,000 and 17,000 each.
The reading for the self-employed hiring workers declined 43,000 in the wholesale and retail sector, 31,000 in the construction industry, and 21,000 in the manufacturing sector respectively in the same period.
