More Women Self-Employed Than Before Pandemic

Almost 30 percent of self-employed people in Korea are women -- the highest proportion since the global financial crisis 14 years ago.

Statistics Korea on Wednesday said 1.66 million of the country's 5.63 million self-employed workers were women last year, accounting for 29.5 percent. 

It was the highest proportion since 2008, when the figure stood at 29.7 percent.

The number of self-employed women was higher than in 2019 (1.64 million), before the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the number of self-employed men has remained under 4 million since it fell below the mark in 2019.