Survey of Business Owners - Korean-Owned Firms: 2002
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
In 2002, there were nearly
158,000 Korean-owned firms in the U.S., employing nearly 321,000 workers, and
generating almost $47 billion in revenue. These Korean-owned firms accounted
for 0.7 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the U.S., 0.3 percent of their
employment, and 0.2 percent of their receipts.
The number of Korean-owned
businesses grew 16.3 percent between 1997 and 2002, and the revenues grew 2.2 percent.
The 2002 Survey of Business
Owners (SBO) defines Korean-owned businesses as firms in which Koreans own 51
percent or more of the stock or equity of the business. The data in this
report were collected as part of the 2002 Economic Census from a large sample
of all nonfarm businesses filing 2002 tax forms as individual proprietorships,
partnerships, or any type of corporation, and with receipts of $1,000 or more.
KIND-OF-BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS
In 2002, 44 percent of
Korean-owned firms operated in other services, such as personal services, and
repair and maintenance; and retail trade, where they owned 1.3 percent of all
such businesses in the U.S.
Retail and wholesale trade
accounted for 54 percent of all Korean-owned business revenue. Table
A shows the industries accounting for the largest receipts for Korean-owned
firms.
GEOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
California had the most
Korean-owned firms with 52,279 firms or 33.2 percent, with receipts of $19.5
billion or 41.5 percent. New York was second with 21,135 firms or 13.4 percent,
with receipts of $5.2 billion or 11.1 percent. Next were New Jersey and
Illinois with the most Korean-owned firms. New Jersey had 9,387 firms or 6.0
percent, and receipts of $2.9 billion or 6.2 percent. Illinois had 8,503 or
5.4 percent of all Korean-owned firms, and receipts of $2.1 billion or 4.5 percent
of receipts. Table
B shows the nine states with the largest number of Korean-owned firms and
corresponding business revenues.
Table C shows
the eight combined statistical areas with the largest number of Korean-owned
firms and their corresponding business revenues.
DATA COMPARABILITY TO PRIOR SURVEYS
Table D provides
a comparison of the 2002 and 1997 published data for Korean-owned firms and
all U.S. firms. The table shows that when compared to all U.S. businesses, excluding
publicly held corporations and firms for which race ownership is indeterminate,
Korean-owned firms accounted for 0.7 percent of firms, 0.6 percent of employees
and 0.5 percent of receipts.
The kind-of-business data for 2002 for Korean-owned firms are not comparable
to 1997 due to the transition from the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system to the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
Additional changes affecting data comparability are discussed in detail in Methodology,
in the section titled "Comparability of the 2002 and 1997 SBO Data."
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