Service sector sales up 1.8% year-on-year in 2024: data

Cumulative sales in Korea's service industry rose 1.8 percent year-on-year in 2024, on the rise of repair and other services, such as funerals and weddings, the statistics agency said Thursday. Sales in the industry came to 3,181 trillion won ($2.16 trillion) last year, compared with 3,124 trillion won the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Data and Statistics. By sector, sales growth was the largest in the repair and private services sector, up 10 percent year-on-year. Coming next were the professional, scientific and technological services sector, which grew 8.7 percent year-on-year, and health care and social welfare services, which went up 7.1 percent. The total number of businesses in the service industry rose 1.9 percent year-on-year to 4.24 million. The industry added 110,000 more jobs from a year earlier, bringing the total number of employees to 14.4 million. Sales per company remained unchanged from a year ago at 750 million won, while per-worker sales went up 1.1 percent to 220 million won. In 2024, 22 percent of all businesses in the sector used onl