Kia to Hire Production Entry-Level Workers for the First Time in 5 Years, Competition Expected to Reach Hundreds to One
[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Kia's announcement of new production worker recruitment for the first time in five years has sparked explosive interest among job seekers. Kia production workers are known as a "dream workplace" because their starting salary exceeds 60 million KRW when including allowances, and employee job satisfaction is high.
The plan is to hire around 100 people, but it is expected that tens of thousands of applicants will apply, making the competition rate the highest ever.
According to the automotive industry on the 10th, Kia posted a job announcement for new engineer (production worker) hires on the 7th. This is Kia's first recruitment of new production workers since the end of 2016, five years ago.
Kia had postponed hiring new production workers due to a reduction in required personnel caused by the shift to electric vehicles and the conversion of in-house partner company workers to regular employees. However, due to the labor union's continuous demands for new regular hires and an increase in retirement numbers, the company decided to proceed with this recruitment.
Kia production workers are considered the best in the industry in terms of employee treatment and work environment. With job security and various allowances combined, the starting salary easily exceeds 60 million KRW, and there are many benefits such as new car discounts and dormitory support. Vacation time can be taken freely, and work stress is known to be relatively low compared to other industries.
Despite the global automotive industry's difficulties due to COVID-19 and vehicle semiconductor shortages, Kia's performance and market share have continued to rise, making the company's future outlook bright.
Accordingly, job seekers' interest is very high. Large-scale chat rooms have been created on platforms such as KakaoTalk open chat and social networking services (SNS), where information is exchanged rapidly. It is expected that many applicants will include high school and technical college graduates as well as current employees.
The competition rate is expected to reach at least several hundred to one. In 2012, Kia recruited 240 new production workers and received about 60,000 applications, recording a competition rate of 250 to 1.
This year, the employment situation has become more difficult, so the number of applicants is likely to increase, while the recruitment scale has been reduced to about 100 people, making the competition rate likely to be even higher.
An industry insider said, "Kia production workers are so well treated that employees want to pass their jobs on to their children, making it very popular," adding, "Since this is the first new recruitment in a long time, the competition rate is expected to be very high."
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