The number of South Korea's delivery workers fell in the first half of the year after a sharp gain in recent years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, statistical office data showed Tuesday.
The number of couriers was 426,000 in the January-June period, down 24,000 compared to the same period of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
The number turned downward after growing from 343,000 in 2019 to 371,000 in 2020, 423,000 in 2021 and a record high of 450,000 in 2022 to meet surging demand for delivery amid the pandemic.
The number of employees in simple manufacturing shrank by 58,000 to 391,000 due to the continued export fall, while the figure for those working in offline store sales retreated 55,000 to 1,625,000 on higher online purchase.
The number of cooks increased 83,000 over the year to 1,139,000 in the first half as outside activities such as eating out expanded following the lifting of all anti-pandemic measures in May.
The reading for those working in the food and beverage services climbed 62,000 to 581,000 in the six-month period, while the number of workers in the beauty services added 27,000 to 337,000.
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