The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) and the Small Business Market Promotion Agency (Chairman Park Sung-hyo) announced the provisional results of the '2023 Small Business Survey' on February 27. The Small Business Survey is used as basic data for establishing support policies for small business owners and the self-employed and is conducted annually.
There were several changes in this survey. First, while previously the survey was conducted jointly with the National Statistical Office, this survey was conducted solely by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
The survey criteria have also been reorganized. Previously, the National Statistical Office's National Business Survey List, which surveyed businesses by business unit, was used, but from this time on, the list was changed to a corporate statistics register that combines survey data and administrative data as corporate-level statistics.
Accordingly, it has become possible to more accurately grasp the status of small business owners at the corporate level, and the scope of the survey has been expanded to include small business owners who existed only in administrative data and were omitted from previous surveys.
Looking at the status of companies and employees in 11 major industries for small and medium-sized businesses in 2023, the number of small and medium-sized businesses was 5.961 million (4.124 million businesses in 2022), the number of employees was 9.551 million (7.135 million in 2022), and the number of employees per company was 1.60 (1.73 in 2022).
Compared to the previous year, the number of companies and employees increased, and the average number of employees per company decreased. However, it should be noted that direct comparisons with the previous year's figures are difficult because the population criteria for this survey have changed.
In particular, it is interpreted that the additional reflection of small businesses that were not included in the existing survey data influenced the survey results.
Looking at the number of companies by industry, wholesale and retail trade was the largest at 2 million (33.6%), followed by real estate at 854 thousand (14.3%) and accommodation and food service at 790 thousand (13.3%). This was followed by manufacturing (554 thousand, 9.3%) and construction (551 thousand, 9.2%).
In terms of the number of workers by industry, wholesale and retail trade accounted for the largest proportion at 2.991 million (31.3%), followed by accommodation and food service (1.406 million, 14.7%), manufacturing (1.302 million, 13.6%), construction (1.076 million, 11.3%), and real estate (1.076 million, 11.3%).
Next, looking at the management performance and debt status of small business owners, annual sales per company were 199 million won (234 million won in 2022), and annual operating profit was 25 million won (31 million won in 2022).
The corporate debt ratio was 60.9% (59.3% in 2022), and the debt per company was 195 million won (185 million won in 2022).
In addition, in a survey on motivations for starting a business, 'I want to run my own business' was chosen as the biggest motivation at 62.6%, followed by 'I think I'll earn more (28.9%)' and 'It's hard to get a job as a salaried worker (5.4%)'.
The management difficulties experienced by small business owners (multiple responses) were in the following order: intensifying competition (59.1%), raw material costs (42.1%), decline in commercial districts (36.7%), deposits/monthly rent (25.6%), and minimum wage (14.9%).
Regarding this provisional result, Lee Dae-geon, the Director General of Small Business Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, evaluated that, “Although a return to normal life has taken place in 2023, the management conditions for small businesses will still not be easy due to increased debt, high interest rates, and high prices.” He also stated that, “In order to stimulate domestic demand, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to increase the issuance of Onnuri gift certificates to 5.5 trillion won this year, hold a Donghaeng Festival in March, and smoothly push forward with low-interest fund supply and support for delivery and courier fees to ease the management burden on small businesses.”
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to use the final results, once they are released in March of this year, as reference material for establishing support policies for small business owners and the self-employed.
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