The headquarters of Samsung Group in southern Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s leading 300 companies saw their combined workforce edge down in the first half of the year amid a slowing economy, a corporate tracker said Tuesday.
The number of workers hired by the top 30 firms in the country’s 10 key industries had totaled 1,085,399 as of the end of June, down 720 from six months earlier, according to the Korea CXO Institute.
Yet the figure was up 1.7 percent, or around 18,200, from a year earlier.
“The companies’ employment conditions could take a turn for the worse in the second half of the year unless their performances bounce back,” the institute said.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy has been struggling due to slumping exports and sluggish domestic demand, with overseas shipments falling for the 11th consecutive month in August on weak chip demand.
According to the institute, global tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. posted the largest increase in the number of employees over the past one-year period.
The workforce of Samsung Electronics, the flagship of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group, had stood at 124,070 as of end-June, up 5.2 percent, or 6,166 workers, from a year earlier.
Chip giant SK hynix Inc. came next with an increase of 1,622 workers, followed by leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. with 847.
Panel titan LG Display Co. chalked off the biggest decrease of 1,065 employees over the cited period, followed by leading retailer E-Mart Inc. with 952.
Female workers had accounted for 26.1 percent of the firm’s total payrolls as of end-June, up slightly from 25.8 percent from a year earlier.
(Yonhap)
