Earnings by small businesses nationwide declined by an average 43 percent on-year in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Tuesday, the average operating profit by a small business last year was 19 million won, compared to 33 million won in 2019.

The ministry attributed the drastic decline to losses incurred from the pandemic and difficulties in swiftly transitioning into a digital-based economy.

Amid the losses, the percentage of business owners in debt jumped from 52 percent in 2019 to 60 percent in 2020.

While there were 130-thousand new businesses last year, the overall number of employees fell 17 percent on-year to five-point-57 million.