Half of companies plan to hire new grads this year, but remain cautious on numbers
While 51.2% of Korea's 500 largest firms are moving ahead with hiring plans, three-fourths of them expect recruitment levels to remain flat or be lower than last year, according to an FKI survey.
Jobseekers talk to consultants at a job fair held in Busan on Sept. 17.
YONHAP
More than half of Korea’s major companies have drawn up plans to hire new university graduates in the second half of the year but remain cautious about increasing the number of recruits.
Of 121 respondents among Korea’s 500 largest companies by sales, 51.2 percent said they had plans to hire new university graduates in the second half, according to a survey commissioned by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and conducted by Research & Research released Tuesday.
The figure was 14 percentage points higher than the 37.2 percent recorded in the second half of last year. Companies that had yet to decide whether to hire accounted for 28.1 percent, down 9.9 percentage points, while those with no hiring plans accounted for 20.7 percent, down 4.1 percentage points.
Half the companies with hiring plans, however, intend to recruit roughly the same number of people as last year. Companies planning to reduce hiring accounted for 25.8 percent, while 24.2 percent said they planned to increase hiring.
The proportion of companies planning to reduce hiring fell 12 percentage points from last year, while the share planning to maintain hiring levels rose 12.2 percentage points. The proportion planning to increase hiring slipped 0.2 percentage points and remained roughly unchanged from last year, suggesting that while moves to cut hiring have eased, companies have yet to shift toward actively expanding recruitment.
Differences were also pronounced across industries. Companies with no hiring plans or that had yet to make a decision accounted for 71.5 percent of respondents in the wholesale and retail sector, 61.5 percent in construction and civil engineering and 55.5 percent in distribution and logistics. FKI attributed the results to the sluggish recovery in domestic demand-related industries and construction, which it said has also affected new hiring.
Among companies with hiring plans, 54.9 percent said they would use both open recruitment and rolling recruitment, up 17.1 percentage points from last year. Among companies using both methods, the share of hires to be selected through open recruitment rose from 43.5 percent last year to 62.7 percent this year.
Organizational fit was the factor companies considered most important when hiring new employees, which was cited by 23.4 percent of respondents. Job-related experience and general job competencies followed, each at 18.4 percent.
Asked which policies were needed to expand hiring, 30.6 percent of companies cited encouraging investment and employment through regulatory easing. Another 21.5 percent called for expanded tax and financial support for companies that increase employment, while 19.8 percent sought greater flexibility in employment systems covering hiring, job placement and working hours.
“The proportion of companies that have yet to decide on hiring plans or have no hiring plans remains high in some industries,” said Lee Sang-ho, head of the FKI’s economic division. “There is a need to expand companies’ capacity to invest and hire through tax support, including an expansion of the integrated employment tax credit and easing regulations.”
BY PARK YOUNG-WOO [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
