Small businesses in South Korea added jobs for the fifth consecutive month in July amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Korea Small Business Institute (KOSI) on Sunday, the number of employed people at small firms stood at 24-point-83 million last month, up 417-thousand from a year earlier.

Small businesses witnessed job additions for the fifth straight month, mostly in digital and contact-free sectors such as information and communications, science, technology and educational services.

The share of self-employed people in the total of the country's employed workers marked 20-point-12 percent in July, the lowest since July, 1982.

Meanwhile, exports by small firms grew 19-point-four percent on-year to ten-point-one billion U.S. dollars last month, posting a double-digit growth for the fifth consecutive month.