The number of self-hired workers declined to all-time low last year, as the economic slowdown struck harder on start-ups than salaried workers, data showed Friday.

The percentage of self-hired workers fell to 22.1 percent in 2014, down 0.4 percent from a year ago, according to data revealed by Statistics Korea and KB Financial Group’s management research institute.

While the number of all workers grew 550,000 to 18.7 million on-year, the total number of self-hired workers rose only 1,000. The growth gap shows that the country’s business environment has been harsher for the self-employed workers and freelancers than the salary workers.

The country’s portion of the self-hired workers out of all workers continued to decline since 2001. The ratio fell to 28.1 percent in 2002 and the fall continued with the only exception in 2012, when the ratio temporarily rose 0.1 percent.

Most of the self-hired workers turned out to be concentrated in the retail-wholesale, restaurant and hotel industries, taking up about 30 percent of the pool. Those in their fifties with a college education also comprised 30 percent.

The average annual income of the self-hired workers reached 34.7 million won, slightly lower than the salary workers’ 35.6 million won.

The self-hired workers turned out to have approximately triple the debt of the salary workers.

According to KB researchers’ data, as of March 2013, an average self-employed worker’s debt tallied to 117 million won compared to the salary workers’ 38 million won, largely due to the shore rents and operating fees.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)