Samsung now hires more women, underprivileged

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Samsung now hires more women, underprivileged

Of the 4,500 entry-level employees Samsung affiliates have hired in the second half, 36 percent are graduates of universities outside of Seoul, and 32 percent are women, the nation’s leading conglomerate said yesterday.

These shares compare to 27 percent and 20 percent when it conducted a similar recruitment drive six months earlier.

This is largely down to Samsung having adopted in June a so-called “open recruiting” process to resolve the chronic polarization in the job market by hiring more staff from less privileged backgrounds.

To encourage more students from schools outside the capital to apply, Samsung has also been holding job fairs in Daejeon, Busan and Gwangju since August featuring 26 of its affiliates. As a result, Samsung saw over 5,000 more applicants in its latest round of recruitment compared to during the previous one in the first half, it said.

The top conglomerate also said it has allocated 5 percent, or 220, of its new positions to people from lower-income families “to give them a chance to overcome poverty by landing a good job.” It said it received recommendations for 620 candidates from universities across the nation.

As the share of newly recruited female workers exceeded 30 percent, setting a new precedent among entry-level jobs at Samsung, the group said this reflects how women have become a rising force in the marketplace in Korea’s traditionally male-dominated society.

“We will continue making efforts to help women demonstrate their competitiveness without being discriminated against,” Samsung said in a release.

Affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, are set to hire 26,000 new workers this year, up 4 percent from 2011.

By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]
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