1 in 3 Business Owners Mulls Closing Down Shop
07 May, 2019
One in three small business owners in Korea contemplated closing down over the last year due to the sharp increase in the minimum wage and sluggish consumer spending.
The Korea Federation of SMEs on Monday published a poll of 500 small businesses with fewer than five workers, and 33.6 percent had thought about closing down over the past year.
The main reason they did not actually close down was because there were no buyers for their business.
But most small businesses reported sharply declining sales with 77.4 percent. Only 3.8 percent said sales increased.
A majority of 59.6 percent have a pessimistic outlook for the second half of this year, and 3.4 percent said they plan to lay off staff, while only 1.4 percent said they will hire more.
Kim Kyung-man at the federation said, "We learned that small businesses face tougher-than-expected conditions. We need to come up with measures to reinvigorate the economy."
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