The number of corporate employees in South Korea dropped on-year for the first time last month, according to data by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

Hit hard by the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, local business entities with at least one employee had 18,278,000 employees as of the last working day of March. It marked a decrease by 1.2 percent from 18,503,000 recorded a year earlier. It is the first on-year drop of the figure since the ministry began collecting relevant data in June 2009. The ministry said temporary workers and those working in offline customer service sectors and small businesses were hit the hardest. 

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)