Korean manufacturers have been hit hardest by the global economic crisis and as a result failed to create as many jobs as they used to. According to a National Statistics Office report Tuesday, 320,900 manufacturers were operating in 2008, down 13,749 from the previous year. The figure is the smallest since 1998 when the financial crisis brought down the number of manufacturers to 279,454.

Manufacturers account for 9.8 percent of all businesses, the first time they represent less than 10 percent since the NSO began compiling statistics in 1993.

The number of staff hired by manufacturers dropped 139,040 to a 10-year low of some 3.26 million last year. The number of workers at manufacturers plunged to about 2.98 million 10 years ago in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis. Manufacturers create 20 percent of the total jobs in Korea. And unlike the service industry, manufacturers provide stable and long-term jobs and play a central role in the employment structure.

However, many manufacturers disappeared even in 2007 when the economy was going well. The number of staff hired by manufacturers began decreasing in 2006, and more jobs have disappeared in manufacturing than in other industries. A quarterly average of some 150,000 manufacturing jobs has disappeared this year.

In September, the number of employed people rose 71,000 year-on-year to 23.8 million. But among them, 300,000 jobs were created through state-administered programs, and a whopping 118,000 manufacturing-related jobs disappeared during the same month.