Less Than 1% of Employees at Korea’s Top 100 Firms Make it to Executive Ranks, New Study Finds

Employees at Korea’s top 100 companies face steep odds in reaching executive positions, with chances falling below 1%. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)

SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – According to a new study released on November 7 by the Korea CXO Research Institute, employees at Korea’s top 100 companies face steep odds in reaching executive positions, with chances falling below 1%.

The study, which examined promotion possibilities at the country’s 100 largest listed companies by revenue, revealed that employees face a competitive ratio of 119:1 to reach executive positions. The analysis focused on non-registered executives, excluding registered directors and outside directors.

As of mid-2024, the top 100 companies employed 849,406 people in total, with 7,135 serving as non-registered executives. This translates to a mathematical probability of 0.84% for employees to advance to executive positions. 

The odds of reaching executive status have generally declined over the past decade. From 0.95% in 2011, the probability decreased steadily through 2015 (0.94%), 2018 (0.8%), 2019 (0.78%), 2020 (0.78%), and 2021 (0.76%), before showing a slight recovery to 0.82% in 2022 and 0.83% in 2023.

The study revealed significant variations across industries. The retail sector showed the lowest promotion rate at 0.3%, with only one in 287.4 employees reaching executive status, attributed to the sector’s large proportion of store-level employees. In contrast, the securities industry demonstrated a higher promotion rate of 2.5%. 

Among individual companies, Hyundai Corporation showed the highest promotion potential with one executive per 14.9 employees, while Industrial Bank of Korea had the lowest with one executive per 908 employees.

At Samsung Electronics, the largest employer among the top 100 companies, the ratio stands at one executive per 110.3 employees. Other major corporations showed similar patterns, with LG Electronics at 1:116.1, Hyundai Motor at 1:143, and SK Hynix at 1:163.9.

“The upcoming year-end and early 2025 corporate personnel decisions are likely to see further reductions in executive positions and promotions, leading to intensified competition for the remaining executive slots,” said Oh Il-sun, director of the Korea CXO Research Institute.

He added that there’s a growing trend of employees preferring to remain in non-executive positions, noting that executives often step down after just two or three years in their roles, making longer careers as regular employees more attractive to some.

M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)