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Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
77% of Korean workers dissatisfied with current salary
20-somethings more open to switching jobs, if they can get paid more Nearly eight out of 10 employees working at Korean companies are not satisfied with their current wages, a survey by a job-search platform showed Thursday. Only 23 percent of respondents in the Job Korea survey said they were content with their current level of pay, while the rest were unsatisfied. The survey was conducted on 1,088 workers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Of the 77 percent not content with their salaries, 60 percent said they are open to a new job. Some 43.1 percent of respondents in their 20s said they would switch jobs if they could get higher pay, without any other demands. When asked the minimum raise required for them to consider getting a new job, respondents in their 20s said it was 11.1 percent. It was lower than the 11.7 percent for those in their 30s and 12.3 percent for those in their 40s. More than half of all respondents (55 percent) said they are curious about what the other people in the same field of work and tasked with the same duties are being paid. Recent data and surveys have indicated that local companies are having trouble holding onto their young employees. Last year a Korea Enterprises Federation survey showed that 83.2 percent of workers in their 20s were considering switching jobs, which was more than 72.6 percent of those in their 30s and 58.2 percent of those in their 40s. The most frequently cited reason for respondents considering a new workplace was their current workplace's financial rewards, which was selected by 61.5 percent of all respondents. The number of Korean workers in their 20s is lower than ever, according to data revealed Tuesday by corporate data analysis firm Leaders Index. For the first time, the number of workers in their 50s outnumbered those under 30 at major companies here.
Korea Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
South Korea's largest firms aging fast, with under-30 staff at historic low
For the first time on record, employees under 30 now make up a smaller share of the workforce than those aged 50 and above at South Korea's largest companies. According to data published Tuesday by Seoul-based research firm Leaders Index, workers under the age of 30 accounted for just 19.8 percent of employees across 124 major companies in 2024. In comparison, those aged 50 or older made up 20.1 percent. It is the first time since tracking began in 2015 that younger workers have fallen behind their older counterparts in headcount. It is also the first time the under-30 share has dropped below 20 percent. Leaders Index analyzed companies among Korea's top 500 by revenue that publicly disclose age-specific employment data in sustainability or governance reports. The decline in younger employees has been continuous and steep. In 2017, under-30s made up 31 percent of the workforce at these firms. That dropped to 21.9 percent in 2022, and slid further to 19.8 percent last year, or 221,369 workers. Over the same period, the share of employees aged 50 and older rose from 19.1 percent in 2022 to 20.1 percent in 2024, reaching 224,438. The drop has been especially pronounced in sectors that were once considered youth-driven, such as battery production. In the battery industry, the share of under-30 workers plunged nearly 10 percentage points in a single year, from 39.3 percent in 2022 to just 29.6 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, the proportion of workers in their 50s edged up from 6.2 percent to 7.3 percent. Multiple structural factors are driving this reversal. First and foremost, the size of the younger population has been shrinking rapidly. The number of people in their 50s is now more than 50 percent greater than those in their 20s, based on 2024 population data from Statistics Korea. Hiring practices have also changed. The country's long-dominant model of 'open recruitment,' where companies hire large groups of new university graduates at once, has been fading. Employers are increasingly turning to experienced workers or those with some work history. According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 82 percent of job postings in the first half of 2025 were open only to experienced applicants. Just 2.6 percent were exclusively for new graduates. 'The drop in young employees isn't sudden. It's the result of long-term shifts that are only now showing up clearly in workforce data,' Park Joo-geun, head of Leaders Index, told The Korea Herald. 'Most large companies have moved away from mass hiring of graduates. The trend now is recruiting mid-career professionals or so-called 'experienced rookies,' which naturally raises the average employee age.' Park also pointed to the impact of generative AI and automation tools, which have rapidly spread across industries since 2023. 'In a slow-growth economy, there is already little demand for additional headcount,' Park said. 'Now that even auxiliary work can be done with AI, the need to hire large numbers of new graduates has become even harder to justify.'
Sinar Daily
7 days ago
- Business
- Sinar Daily
Over-50s outnumber 20s in South Korean workforce for first time
Data from corporate tracker Leaders Index showed that, as of end-2024, employees in their 20s accounted for 19.8 per cent of the workforce at 124 leading firms by sales -- down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier. 05 Aug 2025 10:54am People hold umbrellas during light rain as they walk past a pagoda on a street in Seoul on April 5, 2025. - (Photo by PEDRO PARDO / AFP) SEOUL - Major South Korean companies now employ fewer workers in their 20s than those aged 50 and above, reflecting reduced youth hiring amid an economic slowdown, Yonhap news agency reported citing an industry data. Data from corporate tracker Leaders Index showed that, as of end-2024, employees in their 20s accounted for 19.8 per cent of the workforce at 124 leading firms by sales -- down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier. In contrast, the share of employees aged 50 or older rose 0.6 percentage point to 20.1 per cent, marking the first time since 2015, when the index began compiling such data that younger workers were outnumbered by older ones. It also marked the first time the share of workers under 30 fell below 20 per cent. The gap was most prominent in the battery industry, where the share of employees in their 20s declined by 9.7 percentage points over the past three years, while those aged 50 and above increased by 1.2 percentage points. A similar shift was seen in the information technology and electronics sector, where the share of younger workers dropped 5.4 percentage points. "Due to sluggish economic conditions, many industries have reduced new hiring, while older employees are delaying retirement,' an official from Leaders Index said. - BERNAMA More Like This
Korea Herald
05-08-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
No. of workers aged 50 or over surpasses those in 20s at major firms for 1st time
Leading companies in South Korea have fewer employees in their 20s than those aged 50 or older on their payrolls, industry data showed Tuesday, partly reflecting reduced hiring of young workers amid an economic slowdown. According to the data from corporate tracker Leaders Index, the share of 20-something employees at 124 top companies in terms of sales was recorded at 19.8 percent as of the end of 2024, down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier. In contrast, the proportion of workers aged 50 or older reached 20.1 percent, up 0.6 percentage point from the previous year. It marked the first time since 2015, when Leaders Index started compiling related data, that workers in their 20s have been outnumbered by those aged 50 and above. The ratio of workers aged below 30 years also reached under 20 percent for the first time. Such a discrepancy was particularly notable in the battery sector. During the past three years, the share of workers in their 20s fell by 9.7 percentage points, while the proportion of 50 and above rose by 1.2 percentage points. The information technology and electronics sector also saw a similar demographic shift, with the ratio of 20-something workers declining by 5.4 percentage points. "Due to sluggish economic conditions, many industries have reduced new hiring, while older employees are delaying retirement," an official at Leaders Index said. (Yonhap)
Korea Herald
08-07-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Female executive presence hits record high, but influence still lags
Out of 1,210 female executives surveyed, only 52 are inside directors on board The percentage of female executives at major South Korean companies reached a record 8.1 percent in the first half of this year, but an overwhelming majority of these women remain on the sidelines of actual decision-making, serving either as outsider directors or non-board members, data shows. According to corporate tracker Leaders Index, an analysis of 376 of Korea's top 500 companies by revenue showed that 1,210 of the 15,016 executives were women, marking the first time female representation has surpassed the 8-percent mark. The figure more than doubled from 3.8 percent in 2019. The number of female directors has been on an upward trend since the revised Capital Markets Act, implemented in August 2022, banned companies from forming boards of directors made up entirely of a single gender. The report showed that sectors closely related to consumers had a higher percentage of female executives, such as household goods (19.5 percent), pharmaceutical products (19 percent), the services industry (13.2 percent), and food and beverages (13.1 percent). But the ratio of female executives remained particularly low among traditionally male-dominated sectors like construction (3.7 percent), shipping and machinery (3.3 percent), and energy (3.6 percent). A very few are inside directors Most of the new female executives were either executives who were non-board members or outside directors, referring to those who are not employees or shareholders of the company. They have equal rights as other directors in board meetings, but have less influence in everyday company decisions, as they are not official employees. From 2019 to the first half of this year, the number of registered female outside directors skyrocketed from 38 to 292. Unregistered executives — high-level employees with an executive position who are not registered with the corporate registry — went from 457 to 866 in the same period. Around 15.1 percent of the female unregistered executives were inside directors, and only 52 women among the board members were inside directors. Fifteen of them were related to the owner family of the companies by blood.
