A parliamentary report places South Korea at the second highest among advanced countries in terms of the portion of self-employed people to the working population, taking into consideration the nation's social and economic conditions.

The National Assembly Budget Office (NABO) said Monday that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated the self-employed ratio for South Korea at 23-point-two percent, the fifth highest among OECD member states.

However, the NABO said the ranking of South Korea can jump to number two, coming after Greece, if the OECD survey takes into account the differences of the social and economic conditions of the surveyed countries.

The NABO said tough competition among self-employed South Koreans is making their situations more dire, citing the drop of their average monthly revenues from nine-point-nine million won in 2010 to eight-point-77 million won in 2013.

The average debts they owed also rose from 71-point-32 million won to 89-point-95 million won during the same period.

The NABO said in addition to the competition, concentrated particularly on the food and lodging industries, the sluggish economy has also contributed to the deteriorating conditions of self-employed people in South Korea, predicting that the forthcoming retirement of the baby boomer generation will make it worse.