Over half of large companies set or plan to freeze hiring in H1

A survey found that over half of the large companies in South Korea have either decided not to hire new employees or have yet to decide between hiring in the first half of this year. The proportion of companies that do not have a hiring plan for the year's first half has doubled from the previous survey, raising concerns about a frozen job market.

According to a survey on the hiring plan for the first half of the year conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries, 54.8% of the 500 companies with the largest volumes of sales said they have yet to set a new hiring plan or will not hire any employees in the first half of this year.

To be more exact, 39.7% said their plan is tentative, and 15.1% said they do not have any hiring plan. The share of those who said not to hire any new employees has risen by 7.2 percentage points from 7.9% last year.

Even among those planning to hire new employees (45.2%), more companies are likely to shed the scale of hiring compared to the previous year. The share of companies that have decided to reduce hiring has increased by 20.3 percentage points from 4.3% to 24.6% this year. The proportion of companies planning to hire more this year has shrunk 16.8 percentage points from 41.4% to 24.6%.

The reasons for the lack of new hiring and not expanding hiring include the “economic doldrums caused by the the effects of “3 highs” (high-interest rates, high inflation, and high exchange rates) and supply chain disruptions” and “difficulties within the company such as restructuring and tight management,” each taking up the biggest chunks of answers at 29%.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com