Six out of 10 Korean companies have no hiring plans in H2: survey

Samsung Group headquarters in Seoul. [Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

Six out of 10 large companies in South Korea either have no plans to hire new employees for the second half of the year or have not yet finalized their hiring plans, a survey showed Sunday. Samsung Group is the only conglomerate among the five major groups to begin its second-half recruitment.

According to a survey conducted by Research & Research on the country’s top 500 companies by revenue on their hiring plans in the second half, 64.6 percent said that they either have no plans for new hiring in the second half (48 percent) or will not hire (16.6 percent). The survey was conducted at the request of the Federation of Korean Industries. a major business lobby group in Korea.

Of the 35.4 percent of companies with a hiring plan, 57.8 percent said they will maintain a similar level of hiring as the previous year, while 24.4 percent plan to reduce hiring. Only 17.8 percent plan to increase hiring, survey showed.

Companies cited tightening management due to worsening profitability and business uncertainty as the primary reason for not hiring new employees or reducing hiring (25.3 percent).

This reduction in new hiring is likely to exacerbate the already sluggish youth unemployment rate.

According to Statistics Korea, the unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 29 stood at 6 percent in July, down 0.8 percentage point from a year earlier, but still significantly higher than the overall unemployment rate of 2.7 percent. The number of employed young adults in July stood at 3.94 million, down 138,000 from a year earlier, marking the ninth consecutive month of decline.

Companies, meanwhile, anticipate that the job market for college graduates will be more competitive this year than last year. The expected competition rate for new college graduates this year averaged 81 to 1, up from 77 to 1 last year.

It was also revealed that 21.9 percent of new college graduate employees last year were those who applied for entry-level positions with previous work experience.

Amid the challenging job market, Samsung Group announced on Sunday that it will begin its recruitment for new employees in the second half. Samsung, which introduced the public recruitment system for the first time among Korean companies in 1957, is the only major group that maintains public recruitment.

A total of 20 Samsung affiliates will be hiring for the second half of the year, including Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung Display Co., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Samsung SDI Co., Samsung SDS Co., Samsung Biologics Co., Samsung Bioepis Co., Samsung C&T Corp., Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Engineering Co., Samsung Life Insurance Co., Samsung Fire & marine Insurance Co., Samsung Card Co, and Samsung Securities Co. Applicants can apply on Samsung’s recruitment website, Samsung Careers, over a one-week period from September 11 to 18.