"Both Companies and Youth Prioritize Expertise"... Need to Expand Opportunities for Work Experience and Training

Results of the "2025 Corporate Recruitment Trend Survey"
52.8% of Companies Prioritize Expertise When Hiring

A recent survey found that major companies in South Korea consider job suitability and on-site expertise as the most important factors when hiring young people. Young job seekers also evaluated that their academic major, certifications, and work experience were helpful for employment, indicating that both companies and youth recognize "career-based expertise" as a key competitive factor.

On November 18, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employment Information Service announced the results of the "2025 Corporate Recruitment Trend Survey." The survey was conducted from August 1 to September 1, 2025, targeting 396 out of the top 500 companies by nationwide sales (a response rate of 79.2%) and 3,093 young employees across the country.

According to the results, 52.8% of responding companies cited "expertise" as the most important criterion when hiring young people. The standards for judging expertise were "academic major" (22.3%), "work experience such as internships" (19.1%), and "job-related education or training" (17.4%), in that order. Companies assessed that the experience of young applicants enhances their actual job performance and adaptation speed. Among the responding companies, 85.4% answered that "the applicant's work experience helped with organizational and job adaptation after joining the company."

On April 23, many job seekers visiting the 2025 Mid-sized Companies Job Fair held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, are looking over the job posting board. 2025.4.23 Photo by Jo Yongjun

The survey of young people also showed that expertise is a core competitive strength. Among young respondents, 30.2% said their "academic major" was the most helpful for actual employment, followed by "job-related certifications" (18.4%) and "work experience such as internships" (18.2%). However, while companies considered job-related education and training as the third most important criterion for expertise, young people regarded obtaining certifications as a more meaningful factor, highlighting a difference in perception.

While both companies and young people agree on the importance of work experience, there were also calls for expanding corporate participation and diversifying programs that provide such experience. Companies identified the following as top priorities: ▲strengthening the discovery and support of companies participating in work experience programs (38.1%), ▲quality management of programs (23.5%), and ▲strengthening recruitment linkage (17.7%). In contrast, young people responded in the order of ▲expanding the number of companies participating in work experience programs (24.5%), ▲ensuring program diversity (21.2%), and ▲strengthening quality management of programs (20.0%), indicating strong demands for both quantitative expansion and qualitative improvements.

There are also increasing cases of companies operating customized training programs. Among the companies surveyed, 96 directly operate job-related education and training programs, and half (50%) of these are in the information and communications industry. Benefits provided to program graduates include ▲additional recruitment points (38.8%), ▲full-time employment for outstanding graduates (30%), and ▲exemption from certain screening processes (18.8%). Among companies not currently operating such programs, 15% (45 companies) stated plans to establish new training programs in the future.

The government is also expanding business linkages to strengthen young people's practical work experience. The Ministry of Labor is providing on-site work experience through the "Future Tomorrow Work Experience Project," while on-site training programs such as SK Hynix's "Hy-Five" partner-linked internship and K-Digital Training are also being expanded.

Lim Youngmi, Director General for Employment Policy, said, "As the demand for talent who can be deployed immediately at the time companies need increases, recruitment is becoming more frequent and career-oriented. We will actively support young people in enhancing their employability through expanded work experience and job-centered education and training."

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