"No Talented Candidates Meet the Standards"... 3 out of 10 New Hires at Large Corporations Are 'Experienced New Graduates'

Survey on New College Graduate Hiring Plans by KEA
31% of New College Graduate Hires Have Prior Work Experience
Preference for Candidates with Practical Experience Grows Amid Economic Slowdown

Among new college graduate employees who joined large corporations last year, 3 out of 10 were so-called "experienced fresh graduates."

According to the "2025 First Half Major Large Corporations College Graduate New Hiring Plan Survey" conducted by the Korea Economic Association (KEA) targeting the top 500 companies by sales (126 companies responded), 28.9% of new college graduate hires last year already had work experience. This is 3.2 percentage points higher than the proportion of experienced fresh graduates among new college graduate hires in 2023 (25.7%).

The average career duration of experienced fresh graduates was mostly "1 to 2 years" (50.8%). This was followed by "6 months to 1 year" (32.2%), "2 to 3 years" (8.5%), "more than 3 years" (5.1%), and "less than 6 months" (3.4%) in that order.

The preference for experienced hires in large corporations also appears to have strengthened. Among the planned new college graduate hires for the first half of this year, the proportion of experienced hires averaged 31.2%, up 3.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year. In particular, companies with an experienced hire ratio of "50% or more" accounted for the largest share at 23.8%, a sharp increase of 15.7 percentage points from 8.1% last year. "No plans to hire experienced workers" (19.9%) was the second most common response, followed by "20-30%" (14.3%), "40-50%" (12.7%), and "0-10%" (11.9%).

Park Yong-min, head of the KEA Economic Research Team, analyzed, "As the economy slows and trade uncertainties expand, companies seem to prefer talent with practical experience who can quickly deliver results," adding, "There is a prevailing atmosphere of favoring somewhat experienced talent throughout the hiring process."

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Although job competition is intensifying, large corporations are reportedly struggling to attract talent. When asked about difficulties in new hiring (multiple responses allowed), "difficulty finding talent that meets company requirements" was the highest at 29.0%, followed by "early resignations after hiring" (26.0%) and "dropouts during the hiring process" (17.7%). "Many fake applicants" accounted for 13.0%, and "lack of talent in new industries and technologies such as AI and big data" was 5.2%.

The most difficult job categories to secure talent (multiple responses allowed) were "research and development positions" (34.3%), "professional and technical positions" (23.2%), and "production and field positions" (16.0%). Looking at the planned new hires by major, science and engineering fields (65.4%) nearly doubled humanities fields (32.9%).

A KEA official emphasized, "In a situation where global technological competition is fierce in areas such as AI and semiconductors, the shortage of research personnel is intensifying, especially in advanced industrial sectors," adding, "Comprehensive development of research and development personnel is necessary to secure new industries for future growth."

The average annual salary of new college graduate employees at large corporations was recorded at 46.69 million KRW, an increase of 1.65 million KRW from last year (45.04 million KRW). The salary range "45 million to 50 million KRW" was the most common at 27.8%, followed by "40 million to 45 million KRW" and "50 million to 55 million KRW," both at 23.8%.

This survey was conducted from the 4th to the 13th of last month by Research & Research, targeting HR managers of the top 500 domestic companies. The sampling error is ±7.56 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.