Seoul: The number of companies in South Korea rose nearly 2 percent in 2024 from a year earlier, but the number of manufacturing firms dipped more than 6 percent amid a sluggish economy, data showed Tuesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 6.35 million businesses last year, compared with 6.25 million tallied the previous year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the wholesale and retail sector had the largest number of companies at 1.61 million in 2024, up 2.3 percent on-year. The accommodations and restaurant sector came next with 858,373 businesses, down 0.2 percent from a year earlier. The number of electricity and gas companies jumped 33.7 percent on-year to 147,040, while the number of science and technology firms went up 4.9 percent to 243,418.

On the other hand, the number of manufacturing companies slipped 6.1 percent to 504,728, and the number of agro-fisheries businesses dropped 6 percent to 11,876. The data showed that local companies hired 25.73 million people in 2024, up 1.1 percent from the previous year. The manufacturing industry employed the largest number of workers at 4.15 million, followed by the wholesale and retail industry with 3.6 million.