2005 Unemployment Rate Likely to Grow

According to a survey, employment plans of Korean corporations for 2005 are forecast to be scaled down by more than 13 percent, indicating employment difficulties will worsen.

The Incruit, an online portal site, recently surveyed 507 listed or registered companies and 42 percent (213 companies) expressed their intention to employ new hires next year. The number of employees that those 213 companies are planning to hire is expected to total 16,764, down by 13 percent from 19,274 this year.

Meanwhile, 21.3 percent (108 companies) replied that they would not employ workers next year. The figure is more than twice that of next year, 9.2 percent.

“As the economy stagnation shows no sign of improvement and because this year, companies increased their employment by large percentages to fight youth unemployment, perhaps most companies don’t have enough power to hire more workers next year,” Incruit explained.

In the electricity and electronic sectors, 47 companies that have completed their employment plans are likely to reduce their total number of employed by 16.5 percent. The number is expected to be 3,408 and this includes those who are supposed to wait to be assigned for a certain period of time to start working even after they are hired.

Of 70 companies in the shipbuilding, machine, automobile, and steel sectors, only 25.7 percent turned out to have new employment plans, 611, down from 1,098 (down 44.4 percent) this year.

Do-Young Kim nirvana1@donga.com