Office workers are increasing their expectations ahead of the golden holiday, but there are about 170,000 franchise stores operating without regular holidays. This means that more than 6 out of 10 franchised stores are operating in a "no regular holidays" state.
According to the National Statistical Portal (KOSIS) of the Korean Statistical Information Service and the franchise status survey results released on the 23rd, as of 2023, it was counted that a total of 169,364 stores among 15 major franchise sectors (excluding others) operate without regular holidays. This accounts for 62.7% of the total 270,086 franchise stores.
A "regular holiday" refers to a fixed day off autonomously set for a specific day of the week, not holidays or public holidays.
The proportion of stores without regular holidays showed significant differences by industry. The industry with the highest percentage is convenience stores, of which 54,392 out of a total of 54,828 (99.2%) are operated without regular holidays. In the coffee and non-alcoholic beverage sector, 26,234 out of 32,241 (81.4%) could not take a break, and 78.3% of bakeries also did not have regular holidays.
Similar restaurants such as pizza, hamburgers, and sandwiches (59.5%) and draft beer and other pub industries (56.8%) also operated without regular holidays more than half the time. In contrast, the automotive repair industry (2.8%) and the retail pharmacy and medical supplies sector (12.1%) had fewer franchises without regular holidays.
Average daily operating hours are also long. Among the total franchise stores, 72,972 operate for more than 14 hours a day, accounting for 27.0% of the total. In particular, the ratio of convenience stores operating for more than 14 hours is recorded at 99.7%. Virtually all establishments are in long operation. The bakery sector (34.3%), home laundry services (24.3%), coffee shops (19.1%), and stationery and art supplies retail (18.8%) also recorded long operating hours.
This franchise status survey was conducted by the National Statistical Office based on the list of franchise stores secured by the Fair Trade Commission, excluding franchise headquarters and directly managed stores.
Meanwhile, the income recovery for self-employed individuals has still been slow. According to the "Financial Stability Situation" announced by the Bank of Korea last month, the average income of self-employed individuals at the end of last year was 41.57 million won, showing a slight increase from 41.31 million won in 2022, but they have not yet recovered to the level of the end of 2019 (42.42 million won).
In response, the Bank of Korea analyzed that "structural factors such as the high proportion of self-employed individuals and sluggish service sector performance have acted in combination." It added that "customized policy approaches such as financial support, debt adjustment, and reintegration support are needed depending on the repayment capacity and willingness of self-employed individuals."