Seoul accounts for 1/4 of nation’s workforce

More than one in four Korean employees at a private company reside in Seoul, with nearly 22 percent of domestic businesses located in the capital, data showed yesterday.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 4.49 million people worked for Seoul-based companies last year, up 7.49 percent from a year earlier. They represent 25.42 percent of the nation’s workforce.

The number of businesses in the capital also rose by 1 percent in 2011 to 729,728, accounting for 21.75 percent of the national total, according to the data.

By industry, 17.4 percent, or the largest share, of workers served at wholesale and retail businesses in Seoul last year, followed by dining and accommodation businesses with 9 percent and the construction field with 8.46 percent.

Among businesses in Seoul, over half were in the fields of wholesale and retail, dining and accommodation, and transportation businesses.

Restaurants, as a single business type, made up the largest share with 6.5 percent, followed by real estate agencies, pubs and hair salons, the data showed.

The number of nonalcoholic beverage shops, such as cafes, showed the largest increase of 18.92 percent to 7,826 in 2011, while the number of Internet cafes fell by 13.49 percent, the steepest decline.

A total of 1.86 million workers in Seoul, or 41.43 percent, were female, up 6.54 percent from 2010, the data showed. Yonhap