The ongoing economic slump appears to have shrunk the job market in South Korea even further, as a recent survey showed that 61 percent of the largest companies here either have no plans or are undecided about hiring new employees during the first half of this year.
Of the top 500 companies by sales here, 20 percent will not hire anyone during H1 and 41 percent said they were undecided as of yet, according to the Feb. 4-13 poll conducted by Research & Research and commissioned by the Federation of Korean Industries.
The percentage of companies with no immediate hiring plans has increased compared from the same survey conducted for the first half of last year, when 17 percent had no hiring plans and 37.4 percent were undecided. In the second half of 2024, 58 percent said they would not hire anyone or were not sure.
Even many of the companies that did have definitive hiring plans said they would reduce the number of hires compared to 2024. Some 28.6 percent said they would hire fewer people, 59.2 percent said they will hire about the same number, while 12 percent said they will hire more.
By sector, 75 percent of companies in the construction field had no immediate hiring plans for the first half, followed by 74 percent of those in the petrochemicals, 67 percent in the metal industry and 64 percent in the food industry.
When asked why they were not hiring, 52 percent of the responding companies cited management austerity amid the increased uncertainty both inside and outside the country, together with decreased profits. Another 12 percent said it was due to the economic slowdown across the globe and the weak Korean won.
South Korea's growth momentum has been sluggish, and the Bank of Korea on Tuesday revised down its growth projection for the country's economy this year to be 1.5 percent this year, down from 1.9 percent forecast in November of last year.
The political turmoil following suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3 is thought to have added to the uncertainty affecting the country's economy, notably by the Korean won taking a nosedive immediately after he announced martial law.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
