FKI Surveys 443 SMEs with 5 or More Employees
"Executives and Managers Guaranteed" 9.8%... Staff and Assistants 36%
Desired Monthly Payment 2.48 Million Won... Minimum Wage Level
At the sunken plaza of Munjeong Culture Valley in Munjeong-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, middle-aged job seekers are seen looking at the employment information board at the 2022 Songpa-gu Job Fair held on the afternoon of October 19 last year. [Image source=Yonhap News]＜Copyright (c) Yonhap News, unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited＞
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies with five or more employees, seven out of ten plan to hire middle-aged workers aged 40 and above this year. Most of these companies intended to pay only minimum wage-level salaries and hire employees at the staff or assistant manager level or below.
On the 11th, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) Small and Medium Business Cooperation Center announced the results of a survey on the hiring plans and perceptions of middle-aged workers by SMEs and mid-sized companies with five or more employees. Out of 443 companies surveyed, 309 responded that they plan to hire workers aged 40 or older. The response rate was 69.8%.
The problem is that the willingness to hire middle-aged workers is low in industries with higher wages. The response rates were low for management and office positions (7.1%) and research and engineering technical positions (5.1%). Higher response rates were seen in service jobs (23.5%), simple labor jobs (16.1%), and installation, maintenance, and production jobs (14.3%). Companies in service, education, and consulting sectors (43.5%) showed the highest willingness to hire middle-aged workers.
The average monthly wage companies said they could offer was 2.48 million KRW, which is roughly equivalent to this year's minimum wage monthly conversion amount of 2,487,640 KRW. Among companies that expressed willingness to hire middle-aged workers, those with 10 to fewer than 50 employees (46.3%) were the most common.
The guarantee of job rank is also unclear. The highest response rate was for no rank (40.8%), and a significant number of companies said they would hire at the staff or assistant manager level (36.1%). It was rare to find companies guaranteeing executive-level positions (1.4%) or even department manager level (8.4%).
Companies cited "setting wages appropriate to experience" (22.4%) as the biggest difficulty when hiring middle-aged workers, indicating reluctance due to financial reasons. This was followed by "lack of applicants" (20.5%) and "dropouts after passing" (19.5%).
The most anticipated policy from the Ministry of Employment and Labor this year was "strengthening programs to resolve recruitment difficulties" (38.6%). Among the services provided by the FKI Middle-aged Tomorrow Center, companies most desired the "suitable talent referral service" (45.6%).
Park Cheolhan, director of the FKI SME Cooperation Center, said, "We plan to take the lead in revitalizing the employment market by expanding recruitment events and job training linked to hiring to resolve regional and industry-specific recruitment difficulties, and by strengthening suitable talent referral services."
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