hankyoreh

Over the past five years, the number of mom-and-pop stores has fallen by an average of 6.3 a day, hurt by the expansion of convenience and big-box chain stores. In addition, the number of real estate brokerages and for-profit private cram schools rose by average 16.7 and 8.2 each, driven by a surge in home prices and demand for private education.

According to the 2006 statistics for wholesale, retail and service industries, released by the National Statistical Office on December 25, the number of small-sized grocery stores declined to 95,792 as of the end of last year, compared with 107,365 as of the end of 2001. That means an average of 6.3 store closures a day. For the same period, the number of convenience stores rose to 8,903, from 4,116, representing an average of 2.6 openings a day. In addition, the number of large-sized discount retail outlets climbed to 346, from 238, during the 2001-2006 period.

The jump in the number of real estate brokerages is the result of a surge in home prices over the past five years. As of the end of 2006, the number of real estate brokerages was 68,603, up 80 percent from 30,510 in 2001 and an average of 16.7 new offices opening per day.

The number of real estate brokers rose to 116,359 from 65,024, which means that an average 28.1 people per day earned real estate licenses in the same five-year period. Perhaps the most significant thing about the increase is that the number of male real estate brokers rose 44.4 percent, to 68,011, while that of female brokers jumped 169.6 percent to 48,348.

Due to a surge in demand for private education, the number of for-profit private cram schools for university entrance examinations, or ipsi hagwon in Korean, also jumped. As of the end of 2001, the number of such private education facilities was 17,833. But the figure rose to 32,829 as of the end of 2006. In particular, the combined revenue of all of the ipsi hagwon in South Korea soared to 4.32 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) as of the end of 2006, compared to 1.87 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) as of the end of 2001. Given that figure, the average annual revenue of a private cram school was calculated at 131.74 million won (US$141,000) as of the end of 2006 .


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