Domestic Companies to Hire 470,000 in Q2 and Q3 This Year... Down 9.7% from Last Year

Hiring Plans of Domestic Companies Drop by 51,000 in Q2 and Q3
Manufacturing Sector Leads Planned Recruitment, Followed by Health and Social Welfare
Main Reasons for Unfilled Positions: Lack of Experienced Applicants and Unmet Wage Expectations

It has been found that domestic companies plan to reduce their hiring by approximately 51,000 people in the second and third quarters of this year.

According to the "2025 First Half Workforce Survey by Occupation" released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 26th, companies in South Korea with at least one employee plan to hire 470,000 people in the second and third quarters of this year (April to September), which is a decrease of 51,000 people (9.7%) compared to the same period last year.

By industry, the manufacturing sector had the highest planned hiring with 95,000 people, followed by health and social welfare (61,000), wholesale and retail (54,000), accommodation and food services (47,000), and transportation and warehousing (37,000).

By occupation, the largest planned hiring was for management and administrative positions (64,000), followed by sales (50,000), food service (46,000), driving and transportation (39,000), and machinery installation (24,000).

On the 28th, students are attending interviews at the '2025 Korea High School Graduate Talent Recruitment Expo' held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. 2025.05.28 Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

In the first quarter of this year, companies with at least one employee reported 1,402,000 job openings and 1,294,000 hires, representing decreases of 1.5% and 0.7%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

During the same period, the number of unfilled positions?jobs that companies tried but failed to fill?was 108,000, a decrease of 9.6% compared to the same period last year. The unfilled position rate was 7.7%, down 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

Industries with the highest numbers of unfilled positions were manufacturing (27,000), transportation and warehousing (15,000), health and social welfare services (14,000), and wholesale and retail (11,000).

The main reasons for unfilled positions were "the lack of applicants with the experience required by the company" (25.6%) and "working conditions such as wage levels not meeting job seekers' expectations" (20.6%).

The workforce survey by occupation is conducted to address workforce mismatches by investigating job openings, hires, shortages, and hiring plans at companies. The survey targeted 72,000 companies with at least one employee.