[Biz View] "70,000 Jobs in 3 Years"... Where and How Many Will Samsung's 'Job Project' Create?

'Support for Youth Job Creation' Pledge... Implementation Plan in Focus

Samsung Electronics Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul / Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] As Samsung pledges to create up to 70,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next three years, attention is focused on the detailed implementation plans.

According to the business community on the 19th, Samsung announced last month its "Post-Corona Future Preparation Plan," which includes a promise to directly hire 40,000 people by 2023. Recently, it also presented a social contribution plan aiming to create 30,000 youth jobs over three years by generating 10,000 jobs annually through CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities. Samsung declared that it will create up to 70,000 new jobs by 2023 through direct employment and indirect support.

The Only Five Major Groups with University Graduate Open Recruitment
Hiring Scale Expected to Expand

First, the scale of open recruitment for new employees, held twice a year, is expected to expand. Earlier, 20 Samsung affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, began the recruitment schedule for third-grade (university graduate) new employees for the second half of this year starting from the 7th.

Samsung has not disclosed the exact number of hires, but the business community expects the number of recruits for this second half to be around 7,000, exceeding the previous half-year benchmark of 5,000. Earlier, Samsung announced in its future preparation plan that the usual three-year hiring plan is about 30,000, but it plans to increase employment by 10,000 focusing on advanced industries. Considering this, it is calculated that about 8,000 new hires each in the first and second halves of the year must be continuously made to meet the target by 2023.

In fact, despite the spread of COVID-19 and significant domestic economic uncertainties, Samsung has taken the lead in employment through open recruitment and occasional hiring. For example, as of the first half of this year, Samsung Electronics employed a total of 111,683 people, an increase of 5,609 (5.3%) compared to a year earlier. A Samsung Electronics official explained, "It is difficult to disclose the exact number of hires annually due to the interplay of new hires and resignations," but added, "The number of new employees is steadily increasing as we conduct not only new graduate recruitment but also experienced hires by business units."

Samsung introduced the open recruitment system for the first time in Korea in 1957 and is currently the only one among the five major groups to maintain it. It has pledged to continue this system to provide fair opportunities and hope to young people and to ensure stability and predictability in the domestic recruitment market.

Youth Education Programs
Startup Support Also Expected to Strengthen

Samsung is also expected to contribute to expanding youth jobs through youth software education programs and external startup support projects. A representative example is the "Samsung Youth Software Academy (SSAFY)," launched in 2018. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum visited the online education site of this program on the 14th. SSAFY is a course that focuses on software, a field with great job creation potential, providing intensive education to young people. It offers opportunities linked to employment through professional consulting and job fairs. As of the first half of this year, about 77% (1,601) of the 2,087 graduates have been employed by 544 domestic and international companies in IT, finance, and other sectors.

Samsung plans to increase the number of SSAFY trainees from the current level of around 1,000 to about 2,300 next year in line with the government's "Youth Hope ON" project. The Youth Hope ON project is a public-private cooperation initiative where the government supports education costs necessary for customized talent development, and companies directly train and hire the required workforce to create quality jobs. Samsung is participating in this project. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the SSAFY education site last month as his first external activity after his parole, pledging to "do our best to support the 'hope of youth.'"

Additionally, Samsung plans to expand existing social contribution projects such as "C-Lab Outside," an external startup support program for youth entrepreneurship, and "Smart Factory," which supports productivity improvement for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as launch new projects like regional youth activist support programs to create 10,000 youth jobs annually.

Since 2018, Samsung has set a goal to nurture 300 external startups over five years through C-Lab Outside and is fulfilling this commitment. Through the Smart Factory construction project initiated in 2015, Samsung has supported more than 2,500 small and medium-sized enterprises as of last year. Samsung stated, "We plan to redefine the direction of our CSR activities and establish concrete measures to ensure that Samsung's CSR efforts contribute more substantially to our society."