Total sales of service sector companies in South Korea advanced 2.6 percent on-year to 1,478 trillion won ($1.26 trillion) in 2014, helped by more transactions in real estate and healthcare services, government data showed Thursday.

The annual service by Statistics Korea showed sales in real estate that include rental businesses jumping 10.1 percent, with healthcare moving up 7.4 percent compared to the year before.

"Revival of the property markets and more attention being paid to health and welfare propped up numbers last year," it said.

On the other hand, slower-than-expected growth in consumption caused wholesale and retail growth to edge up just 0.7 percent.

Average sales per company stood at 544 million, down 0.9 percent on-year.

The latest findings showed the total number of companies in the service sector rose 3.5 percent in 2014 to over 2.71 million, from

2.62 million the year before. It said broadcasting, publishing and video service sectors led growth, along with business support areas.

The statistics agency said these companies employed a combined total of 10.67 million people, up 4.3 percent from the year before, with growth centered on the real estate, healthcare and tech sectors.

The increase is good news since policymakers have stressed the importance of job creation to fuel economic growth. Seoul has, moreover, started to re-evaluate the importance of the service sector as a growth engine. In the past, the government as a whole favored manufacturing and did not pay as much attention to the service sector.

Statistics then showed some 167,000 franchise businesses in 2014, up 10.4 percent, or 16,000, from 2013. These operations employed 577,000 people, a gain of 12.8 percent from the year before, with sales up 14.3 percent on-year to 43 trillion won.

The report was based on data collected from approximately 200,000 businesses nationwide, excluding small-time street vendors and those that operated out of homes.

The service sector as defined by Statistics Korea covers recycling, retail and wholesale, hospitality, publishing, real estate and rental, value-added professional services, industry support operations, education, sports and leisure, and other private small-scale work businesses. (Yonhap)