People walk on a street in Seoul, in this file photo taken on Dec. 12. Yonhap

Sales of Korea's service industry increased 10.5 percent on-year in 2021 on the back of leisure and communication businesses, data showed Friday.

Service sector sales came to 2,814 trillion won ($2.2 trillion) last year, compared with 2,547 trillion won tallied in 2020, the data compiled by Statistics Korea showed.

The number of businesses in the sector, however, moved down 0.2 percent over the period to 4.06 million, led by wholesale and retail companies.

Sales per company came to 692 million won, up 10.7 percent on-year, the data also showed.

The service industry employed 13.85 million people in 2021, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

Among 2.5 million businesses in the retail, wholesale, accommodation, restaurant and communication industries, 17.7 percent of them used online platforms to attract customers.

Around 4.3 percent of retail businesses, accommodations and restaurants utilized self-service kiosks in 2021, up 2.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

Some 37.4 percent of retailers and restaurants, meanwhile, offered delivery services, up 8.9 percentage points on-year. (Yonhap)