Value added ratio reaches 42.0 percent as total supply expands
Total supply and demand in South Korea reached 7,113.6 trillion won in 2024, while the economy's value added ratio rose by 0.8 percentage points to 42.0 percent. The Bank of Korea reported that the combined share of exports and imports increased to 31.1 percent.
Shifting shares across production and trade
Domestic output accounted for 6,047.9 trillion won or 85.0 percent of total supply, while imports represented 1,065.6 trillion won or 15.0 percent.
Intermediate goods absorbed 49.3 percent of supply, domestic final demand took 34.6 percent, and exports made up 16.1 percent.
Manufactured goods generated 41.3 percent of domestic output and 26.0 percent of value added, led by assembled and processed products at 18.3 percent of output.
Services represented 48.5 percent of output and 64.1 percent of value added.
Lower prices for imported raw materials and higher gains in assembled goods pushed the overall value added ratio up from 41.2 percent to 42.0 percent, while import dependency fell to 13.3 percent.
Service jobs anchor employment multipliers
Total employment reached 25.96 million persons in 2024, with regular workers expanding to 61.3 percent of the workforce.
Services accounted for 72.0 percent of all jobs and maintained a workers requirement coefficient of 9.5 persons per billion won of final demand, compared to 4.7 persons in manufacturing.
Economy-wide, the production requirement coefficient fell to 1.808 from 1.827, while the value added requirement coefficient rose from 0.752 to 0.759, reflecting changing inter-industry linkages.
Higher domestic value, persistent job duality
Easing commodity costs helped lift domestic value retention across key industrial sectors.
Yet manufacturing generates less than half the employment per unit of demand compared to services.
Long-term economic resilience depends on closing this productivity divide.
Source: 2024 Updated Input-Output Tables
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