Korean workers stay average of 10 years at conglomerates

Employees working at the affiliates of South Korea’s top 10 business groups stay for an average of 10 years, as of last year, data showed Wednesday.

Of the total 88 surveyed affiliates, the one with the longest average working years was Kia Motors at 20.3 years, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

(Yonhap)

By group, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ employees worked the longest at 15.4 years. Hyundai Motor Group ranked second with 12.7 years and Hanwha followed with 12 years. The average tenure at Hanjin Group reached 10.2 years.

Groups with less than the average length of tenure included Lotte Group with 9.7 years, SK Group with 9.4 years, Samsung Group with 9.3 years, Doosan Group with 9.0 years and LG Group with 8.6 years.

By affiliate, Hyundai Rotem took second place with 20 years. Hyundai BNG Steel, whose average tenure came in first place five years ago, came in third with 19.4 years. Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors’ sister company, ranked fourth with 17.5 years.

Others included Hanwha Life Insurance with 16.6 years, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard with 16 years, Hyundai Heavy Industries with 15.4 years, Korean Air Lines with 14.9 years, LG Hausys with 14.8 years and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction with 14 years. 

FSS said that the relatively long period of tenures are due to the companies having been in operation for a long time that entails better stability. Kia, for instance, was established in 1944, making it the oldest company.

Hanjin Kal, Samsung BioLogics and Doosan Bobcat have shown significantly shorter average tenure of workers as they were newly listed. Hanjin Kal’s average tenure is 1.5 years, the shortest among the 88 affiliates. Following Hanjin Kal, both BioLogics and Doosan Bobcat’s average tenure came at 1.8 years.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)