South Korean securities companies have slashed more than 10 percent of their payrolls and shut down over 200 offices at home and abroad over the past year amid a prolonged economic slump, data showed Wednesday.

As of end-June, the nation’s top 28 brokerage houses by revenue had a combined 33,091 workers, down 10.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by Chaebul.com, which tracks the country’s family-run conglomerates, known as chaebol.

The securities firms had a total of 1,344 domestic and overseas branches and representative offices, down 14.6 percent from the previous year.

The annual drop in the number of employees and offices is the largest since the 2008 global financial crisis, according to the data. Of the 28 brokerage firms, 23 cut their payrolls over the one-year period, while no players increased the number of their offices at home and abroad.

The massive wave of job cuts by brokerage houses comes as the South Korean economy shows signs of a slow recovery.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 0.5 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, the slowest pace in more than a year. (Yonhap)