6 out of 10 Domestic Companies Plan to Reduce Investment and Hiring Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Woo Su-yeon] It has been revealed that 6 out of 10 domestic companies plan to reduce new investments and hiring next year. This is because the prolonged economic downturn caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and strengthened regulations make the business environment next year challenging.

According to the survey results of the '2021 Corporate Management Outlook Survey' announced by the Korea Employers Federation on the 20th, 60% of the respondent companies answered that they would 'reduce' investments compared to this year, and 65.4% of companies responded that they would also 'reduce' the scale of hiring.

Responses indicating maintaining the investment level compared to this year accounted for 30%, while companies planning to expand investment were only 10%. In terms of hiring, companies planning to maintain this year's level were about 28.5%, and those planning to expand hiring were only 6.2%.

Regarding the management plan tone for next year, companies intending to pursue 'tightened management (49.2%)' accounted for more than half of the total. Additionally, companies that could not even set management plans due to uncertainty in the business environment next year accounted for 38.7% of the total, with such responses reaching over half (57%) among companies with fewer than 300 employees.

While many companies faced difficulties due to COVID-19 this year, 37.3% of respondent companies forecast that the business conditions will recover 'after 2023.' Companies that answered 'the second half of 2021' accounted for 23.1%, and those who believed recovery was possible within this year accounted for only 17.9%.

This survey was conducted by the Korea Employers Federation by commissioning Global Research to survey 212 companies with 30 or more employees over about three weeks starting from November 23.

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