Top 500 Companies to Reduce Hiring 16.5 Pct. Next Year

Companies that have set the number of next year’s recruiting of entry-level university graduates plan to cut the number of new staff 16.5 percent next year from this year.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said yesterday that it polled the top 500 companies in revenue last year, with 349 responding, Dec. 8-12 on their 2009 employment plans.

The 231 companies that set next year’s employment plan will hire 18,845, down 16.5 percent from this year’s 22,566.

Not all companies will hire less staff, however, as 21.5 percent said they will hire more than the necessary number, and 20.9 percent are considering doing so.

The survey also said 33.8 percent or 118 companies have yet to set next year’s employment targets.

The smaller the company, the more jobs it plans to cut.

The top 30 companies in revenue will reduce the number of hires 10.6 percent on average; those ranked 31 to 100 13.8 percent; 101 to 300 12.5 percent; and 301 to 500 43.1 percent.

Park Jae-geun, labor and management team manager at the chamber, said, “Smaller companies are cutting jobs because they are easily affected by the economic downturn. Large companies are trying to hire to create jobs as part of maintaining their corporate responsibility.”

Of the companies planning to reduce hiring next year, most were in the automotive industry with 50.3 percent, followed by those in finance (41.9 percent), steel and machinery (35 percent), paper and cement (30.9 percent), retail and trade (22.2 percent), and construction (20.3 percent).

The fewest were in the hotel and media sectors (1.8 percent), shipbuilding (3.2 percent), electronics and electricity (4.9 percent), and information and communications (6.8 percent).

“With the full-fledged global economic recession, the job market is freezing,” the chamber said. “The government and the private sector must gather wisdom to create new jobs.”

abc@donga.com