Domestic Companies to Hire '650,000' in Q2-Q3... Wage Increases Amid Labor Shortage

Unfilled Corporate Positions Reach 174,000 in Q1
Hiring Increases and Labor Shortage Rises with COVID-19 Recovery

'The 16th Foreign-Invested Companies Job Fair' held at SETEC, Gangnam-gu, Seoul / Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

As the spread of COVID-19 subsides, the number of hiring plans by domestic companies has surged by more than 50% compared to last year. With the worsening labor shortage, a significant number of companies are considering increasing recruitment costs and raising wages.

According to the results of the labor force survey by industry for the first half of this year, announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 29th, the number of planned hires for businesses with one or more employees in the second to third quarters (April to September) of this year was recorded at 650,000. This is an increase of 219,000 (50.8%) compared to the same period last year.

The industries with the highest number of planned hires are manufacturing (174,000), accommodation and food services (79,000), wholesale and retail trade (76,000), and health and social welfare services (59,000).

By occupation, the number of planned hires was highest in food service positions (76,000), management, administration, and clerical positions (74,000), sales positions (64,000), driving and transportation positions (50,000), and simple manufacturing positions (41,000), in that order.

As of April 1, the shortage of personnel in businesses with one or more employees was 642,000. The labor shortage rate was 3.6%, up 1.2 percentage points from last year.

There were many shortages in manufacturing (176,000), accommodation and food services (79,000), wholesale and retail trade (75,000), and health and social welfare services (57,000).

With employment recovering, the number of hires in businesses with one or more employees in the first quarter (January to March) was 1,128,000, an increase of 165,000 (17.2%) compared to the same period last year. The number of job openings was 1,303,000, up 237,000 (22.3%) during the same period.

The labor shortage is also gradually intensifying. The number of unfilled positions in businesses was 174,000 in the first quarter, a 70.2% increase over one year. This means that despite active recruitment efforts by businesses, the number of positions not filled has increased accordingly.

To resolve labor shortages, businesses are making efforts in the order of "increasing recruitment costs or diversifying recruitment methods (55.7%)" and "improving working conditions such as wage increases (32.7%)."