Daegu Companies Reluctant to Hire Young Workers... Four Out of Ten Made No Youth Hires in the Past Year

Even When Hiring, 46% Are in Production Roles
Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Surveyed 446 Companies

The Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chairman Park Yoonkyung) conducted a survey on "Current Status and Difficulties of Youth Recruitment in Local Companies" targeting 446 companies in the Daegu area.

According to the results announced on May 7, nearly half of the local companies employ less than 10% youth (aged 19–34), with 46.1% having a youth workforce below 10%. This was followed by "10% or more but less than 20%" (24.9%), "20% or more but less than 30%" (17.5%), "40% or more" (5.9%), and "30% or more but less than 40%" (5.6%).

Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry

A look at the youth recruitment status over the past year shows that only 59.9% of companies hired young employees, meaning four out of ten local companies did not recruit any youth workers.

- Among those that did hire, the largest proportion (44.1%) employed "1–2 people" in the past year, followed by "3–4 people" (24.8%), "5–9 people" (17.4%), "10–19 people" (7.5%), and "20 or more people" (6.2%).

- The most common job category for youth recruitment was "production·field" at 46.6%, followed by "management support (HR·general affairs·accounting)" (15.5%), "sales·marketing" (13.7%), "research·development" (13.1%), and "logistics·distribution" (6.8%).

Meanwhile, 82.2% of local companies responded that they face difficulties in hiring young workers (34.2% very difficult + 48.0% somewhat difficult). The most common reason was "low wage levels" at 46.6%. This was followed by "poor working conditions" (19.9%), "low company recognition" (10.9%), "inconvenient commuting·transportation conditions" (9.1%), and "insufficient employee benefits" (8.1%).

Regarding the job functions that are most difficult to fill, "production·field" was the highest at 61.3%, followed by "research·development" (14.5%), "sales·marketing" (10.4%), "management support (HR·general affairs·accounting)" (7.1%), and "logistics·distribution" (3.7%).

Additionally, six out of ten local companies reported that there had been "early resignations among young workers" in the past year. When a young employee leaves within one year of joining, 46.2% of companies felt the economic loss to be "at least 5 million won but less than 10 million won". This was followed by "less than 5 million won" (26.4%), "at least 10 million won but less than 20 million won" (13.2%), "30 million won or more" (8.5%), and "at least 20 million won but less than 30 million won" (5.7%).

When asked about the number and competency of youth applicants, "both insufficient in number and lacking competency" was the most common response at 45.9%. Next was "enough applicants but lacking practical competency" (31.7%), "not enough applicants but those who apply are competent" (14.3%), and "enough in both number and competency" (8.1%).

As for the most necessary policy support to expand youth recruitment and retention, "wage subsidies for employment retention" (62.1%) and "incentives for new hires" (61.3%) were cited most frequently, followed by "improvement of working conditions" (15.6%), "internships·on-site training linked to recruitment" (12.6%), "industry-academia cooperation programs" (9.3%), "onboarding support for new hires" (8.2%), "talent matching·recruitment information" (6.7%), "job training·retraining" (5.9%), and "dormitory·transportation·housing support" (4.1%).

Kim Byunggab, Secretary General of the Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "The difficulties local companies face in recruiting young workers are structural, involving intertwined issues of wages, working environment, and job mismatch." He added, "To ensure that young people can settle stably in local companies, it is necessary not only to increase new recruitment but also to support employment retention measures that help adaptation and long-term service after joining."

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