Summer Vacation Polarization... Large Corporations Get 5 Days vs SMEs 3 Days

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The average duration of summer vacations varies significantly depending on the size of the company.

The Korea Employers Federation announced on the 11th that according to the 2021 summer vacation survey, among companies with 300 or more employees, 46.1% responded that their vacation period was '5 days or more,' the highest percentage, while among companies with fewer than 300 employees, '3 days' was the most common response at 49.7%.

For companies with 300 or more employees, 23.7% responded with '3 days,' and for companies with fewer than 300 employees, 26.7% responded with '5 days or more.'

The survey was conducted on 720 companies nationwide with 5 or more employees (based on responding companies). 91.2% of the responding companies said they would implement summer vacations this year. The average vacation length for companies implementing summer vacations this year was 3.7 days, almost the same as last year (3.6 days).

When investigating the duration of summer vacations among companies implementing them, by industry, manufacturing showed the highest percentage (69.3%) for 'short-term (about one week) concentrated vacation,' while non-manufacturing had the highest percentage (80.6%) for 'vacations taken over a relatively wide period (1 to 2 months).'

Among all companies implementing summer vacations, 58.6% responded with 'short-term (about one week),' the highest percentage, while 34.1% responded with 'long-term (1 to 2 months).'

48.1% of companies implementing summer vacations responded that they plan to provide summer vacation allowances this year, a decrease of 1.0 percentage point compared to 2020 (49.1%).

Regarding the recent economic situation, 45.4% of responding companies said the economy has 'worsened compared to the previous year.' By company size, the response 'worsened compared to the previous year' was higher among companies with fewer than 300 employees (46.4%) than those with 300 or more employees (38.1%), whereas the response 'improved compared to the previous year' was higher among companies with 300 or more employees (21.4%) than those with fewer than 300 employees (13.1%).

44.5% of responding companies said the economy would fully recover in the 'first half of 2022.'

Regarding when the domestic economy will fully recover, the most common response was 'first half of 2022' (44.5%), followed by 'second half of 2022' (24.2%), 'second half of 2021' (14.1%), 'after 2023' (11.6%), and 'recovery starting from the first half of 2021' (5.6%).

66.7% of responding companies said they plan to implement the 'Annual Leave Promotion System (Article 61 of the Labor Standards Act)' this year. The proportion of companies implementing the system increased by 6.3 percentage points compared to last year (60.4%).