SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean service industry's revenue rose last year due to eased worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, statistical office data showed Tuesday.
Revenue of local services companies amounted to 3,053 trillion won (2.33 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2022, up 8.3 percent compared to the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.
It came as outside activities recovered following the government's lifting of major anti-pandemic measures in April last year.
Sales in the art, sports and leisure and the eatery and lodging sectors jumped 33.7 percent and 20.2 percent each, while those for the wholesale and retail, the education service and the health and social welfare segments increased in single digits last year.
The number of businesses in the service industry added 0.2 percent from a year earlier to 4,073,000 in 2022, while the number of employees in the sector gained 1.5 percent to 14,032,000.
Revenue per company in the service industry expanded 8.1 percent to 750 million won (573,180 dollars) last year.
Of total services firms, 19.2 percent used online platforms in doing businesses in 2022, up 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous year.
The proportion of service businesses using self-service kiosks picked up 1.3 percentage points to 5.6 percent, while the percentage of service firms offering delivery services advanced 1.8 percentage points to 42.0 percent. ■
