Nearly 30% of college graduates hired by South Korea’s leading companies last year had previous work experience. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 30% of college graduates hired by South Korea’s leading companies last year had previous work experience, highlighting a growing preference for experienced recruits even at entry-level positions, a new survey shows.
According to a recruitment survey of South Korea’s top 500 companies by the Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF), 28.9% of new college graduate hires in 2024 had prior work experience, up 3.2 percentage points from 25.7% in 2023.
Among these “experienced new hires,” most had worked between one to two years (50.8%), followed by 6-12 months (32.2%), 2-3 years (8.5%), over 3 years (5.1%), and less than 6 months (3.4%).
The trend toward hiring experienced workers is expected to strengthen further, with companies planning to fill an average of 31.2% of their first-half 2025 entry-level positions with experienced candidates, up 3.1 percentage points from the same period last year. Notably, 23.8% of companies plan to fill more than half their entry-level positions with experienced hires, a sharp increase from 8.1% last year.
“Companies appear to be favoring candidates with practical experience who can deliver results quickly, especially given the current economic slowdown and trade uncertainties,” said Park Yong-min, head of economic research at the KEF.
Paradoxically, major companies report difficulties in talent acquisition despite intense competition for jobs. The top recruitment challenges cited include finding candidates meeting company requirements (29%), early resignations after hiring (26%), and candidates dropping out during the hiring process (17.7%).
Research and development positions (34.3%) proved most difficult to fill, followed by technical specialists (23.2%) and production workers (16%). Science and engineering majors are in particularly high demand, accounting for 65.4% of planned new hires compared to 32.9% for humanities majors.
The average annual salary for entry-level college graduates at major companies reached 46.69 million won, up 1.65 million won from the previous year. The most common salary range was 45-50 million won (27.8%), with ranges of 40-45 million won and 50-55 million won each accounting for 23.8% of offers.
The survey was conducted from January 4 to 13 by Research & Research, polling human resources managers at Korea’s top 500 companies. It has a margin of error of ±7.56 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
