This Year's Hiring Outlook... Education and Medical Fields 'Clear' vs Energy and Apparel 'Cloudy'

Analysis of Incruit's "2025 Recruitment Plans by Industry"
Education and lecturing sector leads in new graduate hiring
Manufacturing industries expected to see a decline in recruitment plans
Transportation industry shows the largest increase in hiring intentions

The industry expected to have the most active recruitment of new college graduate employees this year is education and lecturing.

Incruit disclosed the results of a survey on "This Year's Recruitment Plans for New College Graduates by Industry" on the 18th, targeting a total of 897 domestic companies (100 large enterprises, 131 mid-sized companies, and 666 small and medium enterprises).

A view of a Seoul Employment Center.

According to the survey, the industry expected to have the most active recruitment of new college graduates this year is education and lecturing, with a recruitment plan rate of 80.6%. Since 2023, the recruitment plan rate has consistently exceeded 70%, and this year it is expected to surpass 80%. Incruit noted, "With the development of AI and the growth of new industries, trends in the education sector are rapidly changing, making it necessary to secure new personnel related to this field."

Next is the medical, nursing, health, and pharmaceutical sector (75.0%). Due to issues such as the pandemic over the past two years and the increase in medical school admissions, the recruitment plan rate was high at 84.2% in 2023 and 89.1% in 2024. Although it has decreased compared to the past two years, recruitment is still expected to be more active than in other industries this year.

Following are IT, information and communication, and gaming (72.6%), machinery, metal, shipbuilding, and heavy industry (71.4%), and automobile and parts (70.7%) in order.

Industries with relatively low recruitment plan rates include energy (50.0%), clothing, footwear, and other manufacturing (50.0%), travel, accommodation, and aviation (57.1%), and construction, civil engineering, real estate, and leasing (57.9%).

A job posting displayed on the bulletin board of a Seoul Employment Center.

On the other hand, transportation (68.8%) showed the largest increase in recruitment plan rate compared to last year, rising by 25.9 percentage points. Incruit explained, "Recently, chronic labor shortages in the transportation industry, especially in regional areas, have led the industry to actively pursue recruitment."

Next, the food and beverage industry (61.5%) increased by 10.3 percentage points compared to the previous year. Also, finance and insurance (60.0%) increased by 8.5 percentage points, indicating an expansion in recruitment scale.

The industry with the largest decrease is clothing, footwear, and other manufacturing (50.0%), which dropped by 30.8 percentage points compared to last year. As the real economy froze due to the economic downturn and consumption of clothing and footwear declined, this trend appears to have affected recruitment plans as well.

The recruitment plan rate for the energy industry (50.0%) also fell by 27.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. Following this, refining, chemical, and textile industries (63.0%) are expected to decrease by 17.6 percentage points, and automobile and parts (70.7%) by 17.5 percentage points. Accordingly, recruitment in the manufacturing sector is generally expected to decline compared to the previous year in 2025.