Employment in medium and small-sized companies rose from 8.28 million people in 1999 to 11.75 million in 2009, but the figure at large firms dwindled from 2.14 million to 1.65 million, according to a report released on Sunday by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business.

The same trend was also observed in the number of businesses, with SMEs burgeoning from 2.74 million to 3.07 million over the same period but large companies being reduced from 18,800 to 2,900.