Mid-sized Companies Invested 28.6 Trillion Won in 2019, Down 11.2%... New College Graduates' Starting Salary 33.38 Million Won

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Announces '2020 Survey on Mid-sized Companies'
Youth Employment at 65.7%... Four out of Ten Workers in Technical Production Jobs
69.6% Say "Technology Development Without Industry-Academia-Research Cooperation"
19.3% of Companies Pursuing New Businesses... 26.9% in Manufacturing, 14.3% in Non-Manufacturing

A job seeker is crouching down and looking at a laptop at the '2019 Mid-sized Companies Job Dream Festival' held at COEX, Seoul on the 13th. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that domestic mid-sized companies invested over 28 trillion won in facilities and research and development (R&D) last year. The proportion of mid-sized companies in total corporate sales was 15.7%, the same as in 2018. The annual salary for new college graduates increased by 560,000 won to 33.38 million won.

On the 16th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Federation of Mid-sized Enterprises announced the results of the '2020 Mid-sized Enterprises Survey' targeting 4,635 mid-sized companies (based on 2018 financial statements). The analysis was conducted on 1,400 respondent companies.

According to the survey results, the investment amount of mid-sized companies last year was 28.6498 trillion won, a decrease of 11.2% (3.6293 trillion won) compared to the previous year.

By sector, investment in research and development (R&D) was 7.8224 trillion won, down 219.8 billion won from the previous year. Facility investment was 20.8275 trillion won, a decrease of 3.4094 trillion won compared to the previous year.

The proportion of mid-sized companies with export performance last year was 40.4% of the total, up 4.2 percentage points from the previous year. In manufacturing, it was 72.5%, up 3.7 percentage points.

The countries they export to were China (53%), the United States (42%), Japan (32.2%), and Vietnam (23.8%) in order.

Newly entered countries last year included Vietnam (21%), Indonesia (8.5%), India (5.5%), and Japan (5.2%).

The number of hires by mid-sized companies last year was 211,000. Among them, youth (aged 15-34) hires were 139,000, accounting for 65.7%. The proportion of technical production workers among all employees was the largest at 41.6%.

The annual salary for new college graduates was 33.38 million won, an increase of 560,000 won compared to the previous year.

The proportion of companies that responded they "possess world-class technology" was 5.6% of the total, down 0.2 percentage points from 2018.

Companies that secured technology through in-house development rather than cooperating with universities or research institutes accounted for 69.6% of the total.

Mid-sized companies pursuing new businesses accounted for 19.3%. Manufacturing recorded 26.9%, and non-manufacturing 14.3%.

Among the respondent mid-sized companies, 80.8% answered that they have no plans for business succession. Companies that have plans but have not proceeded (10.3%) were about twice as many as those that answered they are conducting business succession (5.2%).

An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "Based on the survey results, we plan to prepare support measures such as strengthening industry-academia-research cooperation so that mid-sized companies can leap forward as global specialized companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.