Companies cut their hiring by 5.1% in the third quarter … Number of employees hired 23.83 thousand, the lowest in 11 years

As a result of the employment impact due to the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), it was revealed that national companies plan to reduce the number of new recruits by more than 10,000 by the third quarter of this year. The number of hiring plans for the third quarter is 238,000, the lowest level in 11 years since 2009.

Companies are expected to focus on keeping employment in line with the government’s political stance, and there is growing concern that the labor market will continue to experience a cold snap in the second half of the year.

According to the results of the ‘Business labor force survey by type of position for the first half of 2020’ released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 31st, the number of companies it plans to hire from the second quarter of this year (April to June) to the third quarter (July to September) was 238,000. 13,000 people (5.1%) decreased in the period.

This is a somewhat relaxed figure compared to the fact that the number of recruitment plans (251,000 people) at the time of the survey in the first half of last year decreased significantly to 20.0% compared to the same period of the year. last year.
However, in terms of the number of people, it is the smallest since 208,000 in the first quarter of 2009. It appears that the economic uncertainty and management concerns arising from the spread of Corona 19 have had an impact. In fact, there is a high possibility that the job market in the second and third quarters will become more difficult.

The survey is limited to companies with 5 or more commercial employees, which represent 25% of all companies, and the survey is also from the beginning of April. This means that the effects of Corona 19 caused by the massive outbreak in May and June may not have been sufficiently reflected.

The fact that Corona 19 is spreading rapidly in August is cause for concern. Regarding the number of domestic workers in companies announced in July by the Ministry of Employment, the decrease was the lowest for the fifth month since March, but the trend of improvement is likely to halt due to recent government measures to strengthen the quarantine.

At a briefing this morning at the Sejong Government Complex, Hyang-sook Chung, head of the Labor Market Research Division, said: “It is difficult to see the situation of Corona 19 and the various conditions of the companies separately.” It is also difficult to predict ”. By size, hiring plans for both small and medium-sized businesses and large companies decreased, but for fewer than 300 employees, the number of hiring plans decreased significantly.

The hiring plan of companies with less than 300 employees was 208,000 (87.1% of the total hiring plans), 5.6% less than in the same period of the previous year. The hiring plans of companies with 300 or more employees, highly preferred by job seekers, were 31,000, 1.8% less than in the same period last year.

Looking at the number of hiring plans by job type, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry (56,000 people), the healthcare industry and the social welfare services industry (35,000 people), and the transportation and warehousing industry (28,000 people) were the most.

In the first quarter of this year (January to March), the number of jobs for companies with five or more commercial employees was 793,000, a decrease of 32,000 (3.9%) compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the number of employees hired was 734,000, a decrease of 14,000 (1.9%).

The number of “vacant personnel”, which is the number of people who could not be hired by the companies, was 59,000, 22.7% less than in the same period last year.

The unfilled rate was 7.3%, 1.8 percentage points less than in the same period last year, the lowest level since 2008 when the survey began. Previously, the lowest uncovered rate was recorded in the first quarter of 2015 (9.3%).

The decrease in the uncovered rate can be interpreted as the solution to the phenomenon of “mismatch” in the labor market, where the demand for job search and job search do not coincide.

However, in the case of the first half of this year, it is analyzed that the demand for jobs decreased due to the transition to permanent workers in the public sector last year, and the number of hires decreased due to the spread of Corona 19.

The industries with the highest number of vacant personnel were manufacturing (14,000 people), transportation and warehousing (12,000 people), and health and social welfare services (9,000 people).

The reason for the lack of completion was ‘because there is no applicant with the experience required by the company’ (21.4%). Then there were responses such as ‘because the working conditions such as the salary level do not meet the expectations of job applicants’ (20.2%).

This survey is the result of a survey of 32,000 companies with five or more commercial workers across the country. The Ministry of Employment and Employment surveys the number of hires and hires twice a year during the first and third quarters.