Chaebol less interested in spring recruitment

Around 40 percent of major Korean companies said they do not plan to hire college graduates in the first half of this year, according to survey results from Job Korea on Wednesday.

The job search website surveyed 321 companies, mostly affiliates of local conglomerates.

These companies are popular career starting points for college graduates as they are perceived to pay well and offer more stable employment than SMEs. Conglomerates typically hold large-scale open recruitment drives twice a year, and for the earlier season, a lot of them start receiving applications in March.

However, 41.1 percent of the companies that responded to the survey said they won’t be receiving new recruits in the first half of this year, whereas just 35.8 percent, or 115 companies, said they will. Around 23 percent said the matter was undecided.

Among the 115 companies that said they will hire new employees, 27 percent said they have not come up with a timeline for recruiting and 29.6 percent said the number of new jobs was undecided.

“Recruitment schedules are normally announced by the end of February,” said a Job Korea spokesman. “Chaebol release plans based on the hiring demand reported from affiliates. This year, companies seem to be slower in collecting this data.”

Some of the largest conglomerates in Korea have been noticeably slower in kicking off recruitment.

Lotte Group said they will start receiving applications in late March but added that they have not decided how many people will join the company. Hyundai Motor Group will start its open recruitment process on Friday and CJ Group will kick off its hiring next Wednesday, but neither chaebol has disclosed how many people they actually anticipate hiring.

Samsung Group, the top choice for many college graduates, said they haven’t decided when they are going to open the recruitment process or how many positions will be available. Last year, they started receiving applications in mid-March.

Only 81 companies intended to recruit and were willing to disclose a clear timeline and number of jobs. The projected number of new jobs at these companies is 2,625, more than 200 less than last year.

By sector, food and beverage companies cut the largest number of new positions, down 22.8 percent compared to the same time recruitment process last year. The automotive industry cut new roles by 21.5 percent.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]