Top 30 conglomerates nation’s hiring engine

Korea’s top 30 conglomerates have increased their workforce by 4.8 percent annually since 2000, compared to the national average of 2.4 percent per year, according to data from the Federation of Korean Industries released yesterday.

The number of chaebol employees rose from 699,000 in 2000 to 1.23 million last year, while the number of employees at all companies rose from 13.36 million to 17.71 million, said the federation. As a result, employees at the 30 largest conglomerates accounted for 7 percent of employees in Korea last year, up from 5.2 percent in 2000.

More than half of the workforce at those conglomerates was created by the country’s four largest conglomerates - Samsung Group, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Group and SK Group. There were 625,120 employees at the top four last year and 50.7 percent of employees in the top 30, compared with 326,228, or 46.7 percent, in 2000.

Samsung has had the most employees every year during the period, rising from 132,669 in 2000 to 257,091 last year.

Hyundai Motor increased its workforce every year, with annual growth ranging from 1.1 percent to 11.3 percent. Its figure last year was 147,714, compared with 92,514 in 2000.

The federation said it analyzed raw data available from the Fair Trade Commission.

BY MOON GWANG-LIP [joe@joongang.co.kr]