Hyundai Heavy tops ranking of hiring laggards

Hyundai Heavy Industries had the lowest employment rate compared to its sales growth among 10 big companies since 2007, according to CEO Score, a corporate management Web site.

According to the survey, Hyundai Heavy Industries topped the list, followed by Hyundai Motor, Samsung, Hanwha, Lotte, Hanjin, LG, GS and SK Group.

The survey calculated revenue growth over employment growth for four years between 2007 and 2011.

Hyundai Heavy Industries saw its employees increase by a mere 5.6 percent from 29,588 in 2007 to 31,232 in 2011.

At the same time, sales increased by 86 percent from 18.3 trillion won ($16.1 billion) to 34.2 trillion won, 16 times the rate of employment growth.

“The low employment rate came as Hyundai Heavy Industries incorporated Hyundai Corporation in 2008, a company with fewer personnel and greater revenues,” said an employee at Hyundai Heavy Industries.

“Also, sales have increased as Hyundai mainly won contracts to export high-value items,” he added. “It is currently striving to create opportunities for new jobs.”

The Lee Myung-bak administration has been criticized for failing to keep its pledge to create quality jobs through corporate growth, and “economic democracy” is becoming a buzzword in the lead-up to December’s presidential election.

Among large subsidiaries of the 10 groups, Posco Steel and Hyundai Motor had low employment rates.

Posco Group sales swelled by 161.7 percent from 23.7 trillion won to 62.2 trillion won from 2007 to 2011, but its employment only went up 20.9 percent.

Hyundai Motor saw a 14 percent increase in employees from 103,049 in 2007 to 117,427 in 2011, while sales surged by 110 percent from 62.9 trillion won to 132.7 trillion won.

SK and GS posted the highest employment growth rates compared to sales growth. SK increased employment by 103.1 percent and GS by 127.5 percent.

While the employment rate for companies working in the domestic service sector, such as SK and Lotte, generally was high, large industries with big capital investment such as Hyundai Heavy Industries and Posco had significantly lower employment rates.

By Kim Jung-yoon [kjy@joongang.co.kr]