The Company Most Desired by Job Seekers with an Average Annual Salary of 120 Million Won

'Job Satisfaction' Top Priority is Salary
Naver, Starting Salary 52.5 Million KRW·Average Annual Salary 120 Million KRW...Annual Stock Grants

Six out of ten office workers chose "salary" as the criterion for increasing job satisfaction.

According to a recent survey conducted by the employment platform JobKorea on 496 male and female office workers regarding "job satisfaction," the top priority factor for finding value in social life was salary (62.7%), followed jointly by growth potential and work-life balance (39.1%).

Job seekers are looking at the recruitment board at the 2019 Logistics Companies Youth Job Fair held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. This is a stock photo unrelated to the article.
[Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@]

Other factors included teamwork (17.3%), recognition or reputation from superiors and colleagues (11.5%), promotion and work performance (7.3%), and others (1.6%).

In this regard, Naver emerged as the company of greatest interest among IT industry job seekers. As of last year, Naver's starting salary for new employees was 52.5 million KRW, with an average annual salary of 119 million KRW.

In addition to salary, the "Stock Grant," which provides company shares worth 10 million KRW annually, is also a factor that boosts motivation to join. Naver's Stock Grant is a cash-equivalent employee compensation system that has been distributing shares worth 10 million KRW twice a year for the past three years since 2021. Starting this year, it has been extended for an additional two years, continuing until 2025.

According to a survey by the specialized job platform CATCH on 1,055 job seekers regarding "company analysis," Naver was the only IT company to rank among the top. It was found that Naver's company analysis report was viewed approximately 7,000 times.

The top three were Hyundai Motor Company (16,000 views), LG Electronics (14,000 views), and Samsung Electronics (11,000 views), respectively.

Meanwhile, Naver's recruitment opportunities are narrowing every year. According to Naver's "2023 ESG Integrated Report" released on the 25th, the number of new hires at Naver decreased by about 300 each year: 838 in 2021, 599 in 2022, and 231 in 2023. Notably, the number of new hires dropped by more than half (61%) from 2022 to 2023.

This is a base effect from the explosive increase in new hiring demand at domestic tech companies during the pandemic, leading to a reduced need for new personnel. As a result, competition among job seekers aspiring to join big tech companies is expected to become even fiercer.