Two-Thirds of Companies to Hire New Employees This Year... 60% Rely Solely on Rolling Recruitment

"Preference for Experience and Increase in Rolling Recruitment Expected"

Job seekers attending the '2023 Aviation Industry Job Fair' held on the 30th at the International Terminal of Gimpo Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, are making inquiries related to recruitment. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Two-thirds of companies with more than 100 employees plan to hire new employees this year. More than half said the hiring scale would be similar to last year, and they stated that they would conduct only occasional recruitment rather than regular recruitment.

The Korea Employers Federation announced on the 3rd that it conducted the "2024 New Hiring Status Survey" targeting 500 companies with more than 100 employees and obtained these results. According to the survey, 66.8% of the responding companies said they "have plans for new hiring." Responses indicating no hiring plans accounted for 11.0%, and undecided responses were 22.2%.

Among the companies that responded they have hiring plans, more than half (57.5%) said the hiring scale this year would be "similar to last year." Only 14.7% responded that they would increase the scale compared to last year. The percentage of companies that had not yet determined the scale was 19.2%. The larger the company size, the higher the proportion of responses indicating an undecided hiring scale. Specifically, it was 30.3% for companies with 1,000 or more employees, 19.9% for those with 300?999 employees, and 11.5% for those with 100?299 employees.

Regarding the new hiring method, 60.6% of the responding companies said they "conduct only occasional recruitment." Responses indicating "both regular and occasional recruitment" accounted for 32.2%, and those conducting "only regular recruitment" were 7.2%. The smaller the company size, the higher the proportion of responses indicating only occasional recruitment.

As for the timing of deciding new hiring plans, including the confirmation of hiring scale, 62.0% of the responding companies said they "assess and decide on an ongoing basis without a specific point in time." Other responses included 17.2% at the end of the previous year, 12.8% at the beginning of the year, 5.8% quarterly, and 2.2% semiannually.

The most important evaluation factor in new hiring was job-related work experience. It was chosen by 74.6% of the responding companies. Other factors included "personality and attitude" (9.4%), "job-related major" (6.2%), "job-related certifications" (5.4%), "corporate culture fit" (2.2%), and "final academic background" (1.8%).

The trend in this year’s hiring market changes identified by companies was "strengthening preference for experienced hires" (56.8%, multiple responses allowed). This was followed by "increase in occasional recruitment" (42.2%) as a major change. Other trends included "increase in job seekers giving up or retention phenomena" (12.0%), "increase in hiring talent related to future new industries" (11.0%), and "expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) utilization" (9.8%).

Choi Yoon-hee, head of the Youth ESG Team at the Korea Employers Federation, emphasized, "The trend of companies placing importance on job experience of job seekers in the hiring process is strengthening, and cases where companies directly operate job training and work experience programs for youth are also increasing. Since such company-led vocational training enhances youth employability, it is necessary to develop progressive linkage and expand support with employment services."

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