The sales workforce at South Korea's retail stores continued to decline in the past four years on increased online transactions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Sunday.

The number of newly hired salespeople at offline outlets fell 13 percent, or 393,000, to 2.64 million in April this year from 3.03 million in the same month of 2019, data from Statistics Korea showed.

The April tally is down 0.7 percent from the same month of last year, the data said.

Subjected workforce at offline shops includes cashiers at retail stores, insurance consultants, and car salespeople.

Sales at offline stores have been on the decline and consumers are increasingly placing orders through online shopping channels. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of such a structural change in recent years, a Statistics Korea official said. (Yonhap)