3 out of 10 Companies "Not Hiring New Employees This Year or Plans Undecided"

JobKorea Survey of 567 Hiring Managers
53.8% "Prefer 'Relevant Field Experience' for Entry-Level Hiring"

50% Plan Continuous Recruitment... 27.3% for Open Recruitment

A job seeker records the recruitment board on a smartphone at the aviation industry job fair held at the International Terminal of Gimpo International Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] This year, it was found that about three out of ten companies have no plans to hire new graduates or have not yet decided on their plans. While half of the companies said they would hire through occasional recruitment, only about one in four planned to conduct open recruitment.

Job platform JobKorea disclosed the results of a survey conducted on January 13th with hiring managers from 567 domestic companies regarding their "New Graduate Recruitment Plans for This Year."

First, 67.7% of companies confirmed their plans to hire new graduates this year. Those with no hiring plans (16.4%) or who had not yet decided on their plans (15.9%) together accounted for over 30%. This means that about three out of ten companies either have no plans to hire new graduates or have not yet finalized their plans.

By company size, 91.9% of large companies responded that they would hire new graduates this year, which was higher than the response rates of mid-sized companies (80.5%) and small businesses (63.0%).

Half of the companies (50%) said they would recruit new graduates through occasional recruitment, followed by open recruitment (27.3%) and continuous recruitment (22.9%). The timing of recruitment plans was in order of January (32.0%), March (20.8%), February (17.7%), and April (13.0%).

Meanwhile, companies viewed job-related work experience of job seekers as a meaningful "plus factor." Among all responding company hiring managers, 65.3% said there were preferential factors in the new graduate hiring process. The important evaluation criteria they considered during hiring were experience working in the applied field (53.8%), possession of specialized knowledge and certifications in the applied field (38.6%), an attitude showing responsibility and sincerity (36.8%), and a strong interest and will for self-development (20.3%).

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