(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of companies planning hirings this year prefer science and engineering majors, a survey indicated Friday.
Job portal Incruit polled 571 listed firms who have hiring plans for the second half of this year. Results showed 53.6 percent of them favored graduates with majors in science and engineering, an increase from 45 percent in the same period last year.
Far behind as the second favored choice were liberal arts majors, with 20.2 percent. Economic majors were preferred by 15.2 percent, medical majors 4.5 percent, natural sciences 3.3 percent and education 1.5 percent.
Incruit attributed the trend to the growing emphasis on electric, electronics and new energy sectors as new profit-generating industries, pushing companies to hire employees who have studied related fields. Even jobs that traditionally were filled by liberal arts majors, such as finance and insurance, are now given to science and engineering majors as the companies turn digital and need personnel familiar with cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
“We can cautiously say that finance and insurance industries will become the playing ground for science and engineering majors,” Seo Mi-young, CEO of Incruit, said. “But the growing base is for blind hiring, so it’s more important for people to have knowledge about their majors and build competitiveness.”
(Yonhap)
