More than half of South Korea's economically active people are employed by small and medium enterprises, data showed Monday, due mainly to the growing presence of the services sector in the local economy.

According to the data by the Statistics Korea, workers employed at small and medium firms came to 12.6 million in 2011, accounting for 50.3 percent of the country's 25 million economically active population.

Economically active population refers to people over the age of 15 who are either working or seeking employment.

It marked the first time for the number to rise above 50 percent since the agency started compiling such data in 2000.

Market watchers said the increase came as the country's industry has moved its focus from conglomerate-oriented manufacturing sector to the services sector which is usually led by small and medium firms.

The rise also came as more conglomerates outsourced some of their work to smaller companies, they added.

As of 2011, there were 3.23 million small- and medium-sized firms in the country, far above some 3,000 large-sized companies employing 1.9 million workers.

The figures translate into the smaller firms accounting for 99.9 percent of South Korean companies and 86.9 percent of the combined company-employed economically active population.

Despite the growing presence of small and medium companies, however, their employees' average wage came to 52.6 percent of that of large-sized firms in 2011, down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier. (Yonhap News)