Conditions for new hiring among companies have improved slightly compared to last year. However, more than half of the companies still plan to maintain or reduce their hiring levels rather than expand. The trend of companies combining public and ongoing recruitment methods is also emerging.
The Korea Economic Association (KEA) released the results of a survey on the new hiring plans for the second half of 2026, conducted by Research and Research among the top 500 companies by revenue, on September 29. A total of 121 companies responded to the survey.
In response to the question about hiring plans for the second half of this year, 51.2% of companies indicated they have established plans, marking a 14.0 percentage point increase from the same period last year. The proportion of companies that responded with 'undecided' (28.1%) or 'no plans' (20.7%) decreased by 9.9 percentage points and 4.1 percentage points, respectively.
Among the companies that established new hiring plans, 50.0% stated they would maintain hiring at a similar level to last year, 25.8% indicated they would reduce hiring, and 24.2% planned to increase hiring. Compared to the survey from the second half of 2025, the percentage of companies planning to reduce hiring decreased by 12.0 percentage points, while those planning to increase hiring saw a slight decrease of 0.2 percentage points.
By industry, the highest proportions of companies that either did not establish hiring plans or do not plan to hire this year were in the retail (71.5%), construction and civil engineering (61.5%), and distribution and logistics (55.5%) sectors.
There appears to be an expansion in regular public recruitment methods. Among the companies that established hiring plans for the second half of this year, 54.9% indicated they would use a combination of public and ongoing recruitment, up from 37.8% in the same period last year. For these companies, the proportion of public recruitment in their hiring plans for the second half of this year is 62.7%, an increase of 19.2 percentage points from last year.
Lee Sang-ho, head of the KEA's Economic Division, stated, "The slight expansion in new hiring movements among major companies this fall compared to last year is positive. However, the high proportion of companies in certain sectors that have not established hiring plans or have no plans at all indicates a need for tax support and regulatory relief to create conditions that allow companies to expand their investment and hiring capacity."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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