[THE INVESTOR] Over the past five years, the listed affiliates of South Korea’s top 30 industrial groups saw their profitability decline, while their labor costs increased.

The Federation of Korean Industries on June 27 said that between 2011 and 2015, sales per employee at the affiliates fell an annual 2.7 percent to 968 million won (US$ 822,996) from 1.07 billion won.

Operating profit per employee also fell an annual 7.1 percent to 53.17 million won from 71.32 million won.


At the same time, labor costs per employee rose by an annual 4.2 percent to 87.87 million won in 2015, down from 74.53 million won in 2011.

The three industries with the highest labor costs per employee were construction, science technology and manufacturing.

The ratio of sales per employee in comparison to operating profit fell to 5.5 percent from 6.6 percent over the cited period, but labor costs compared to labor costs per employee rose to 9.1 percent from 6.9 percent.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)