South Korea's youth job market will be tougher in the second half than last year

It has been revealed that major Korean companies are planning to hire new university graduates in the second half of this year more modestly than last year. According to a survey released on the 10th by the National Federation of Business Enterprises, the
Of the top 500 companies, approximately 60% had no hiring plans or were undecided. The reasons behind this seem to be deterioration in profitability and instability in the business environment.
The Japan Business Federation commissioned research and research, a public opinion research organization, to conduct a survey on new university graduates in the second half of 2023.
According to a survey of ``Recruitment Plans'', 16.6% of companies had no plans to hire in the second half of this year. 35.4% of companies have hiring plans, and 57 companies plan to maintain hiring at the same level as last year.
.8%, and 24.4% of companies said they would reduce it. Only 17.8% of companies said they would increase the number. Reasons for postponing hiring or downsizing include ``deterioration in profitability and management uncertainty.''
The most common answer was ``austerity management to accommodate gender issues'' (25.3%). Responding companies said, ``Economic deterioration due to prolonged global economic slump, high interest rates and high exchange rates'' (19%)
``Cost reduction in preparation for increases in raw material prices and labor costs'' (15.2%) was also cited as the main reason. Competition for college graduates in the second half of this year is expected to be more intense than last year. The responding companies
predicted that the average competition ratio for new university graduate recruitment this year would be 81:1. As a policy issue to increase the number of new university graduates hired, ``Inducing business investment and employment expansion through deregulation'' (39.4%
), ``Expand incentives for companies to increase employment'' (25.2%), ``Support for companies in new industrial fields'' (15.7%), and ``Resolve mismatches such as strengthening career guidance'' (8.7%).
Choo Kwang-ho, head of the Economic and Industry Headquarters of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, said, ``Recently, companies have been faced with increasing management uncertainty and are making conservative hiring plans.
We need to expand our employment capacity."