Companies Plan to Hire 296,000 People from April to September... 24% Increase Compared to Last Year

The Largest Scale in 3 Years... Impact of Economic Recovery and Base Effects
Unfilled Positions in Q1 Surge 44%... Worsening Labor Supply-Demand Mismatch

On the first weekend of the 'Korea Together Sale,' a domestic demand revitalization policy by the government, many citizens gathered in the Myeongdong shopping district in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 27th. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The number of hiring plans by domestic companies has increased due to the economic recovery trend.

According to the results of the labor force survey by occupation for the first half of this year, announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 29th, the number of planned hires for the 2nd to 3rd quarters (April to September) of this year at domestic businesses with five or more regular employees was 296,000, an increase of 58,000 (24.2%) compared to the same period last year. This is the largest scale of hiring plans for businesses with five or more employees in the 2nd to 3rd quarters since 2018 (314,000).

The increase in hiring plans is interpreted as being influenced not only by the economic recovery trend but also by a base effect due to the reduction of hiring plans last year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The industries with the highest number of planned hires were manufacturing (93,000), transportation and warehousing (36,000), and health and social welfare services (34,000). In the 1st quarter (January to March) of this year, the number of hires planned by businesses with five or more employees was 736,000, an increase of 2,000 (0.2%) compared to the same period last year. The number of job openings was 820,000, up 27,000 (3.5%).

The number of unfilled positions, referring to the number of people not hired despite active recruitment by businesses, was 85,000 in the 1st quarter, an increase of 26,000 (43.5%) compared to the same period last year. This indicates that the labor mismatch (supply-demand imbalance) has worsened.

The unfilled rate, which is the ratio of unfilled positions to job openings, was 10.3%, up 2.8 percentage points from the same period last year.

The labor force survey by occupation investigates the number of job openings and hires by companies to alleviate labor mismatches, targeting a sample of about 32,000 businesses with five or more regular employees.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor also announced the results of the business labor force survey for May on the same day.

According to the survey results, as of the last business day of last month, the total number of employees at businesses with one or more employees was 18,659,000, an increase of 350,000 (1.9%) compared to the same month last year.

The number of employees at businesses has continued to increase for three consecutive months since March. The increase last month was smaller than in April (379,000).

The number of regular and temporary/daily workers increased by 120,000 and 213,000 respectively, and other workers including special employment types (special contract workers) increased by 18,000.

By industry, the largest increase in the number of employees was in health and social welfare services (114,000). Education services (68,000) and professional, scientific, and technical services (56,000) also saw significant increases. Workers in the accommodation and food service industry, which suffered significant damage due to the COVID-19 pandemic, decreased by 37,000 last month, continuing a decline for 16 consecutive months.

In April, the total wage per worker at businesses with one or more regular employees was 3,486,000 KRW, an increase of 127,000 KRW (3.8%) compared to the same month last year. Wages for regular workers were 3,665,000 KRW, up 148,000 KRW (4.2%), and wages for temporary/daily workers were 1,724,000 KRW, up 43,000 KRW (2.6%).

The business labor force survey targets domestic businesses with fixed workplaces, excluding agriculture and others, so workers in household service industries without fixed workplaces are excluded.

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