[THE INVESTOR] Among the 109 listed firms that earned more than 1 trillion won ($880,000) in the first half of this year, 54 companies have downsized their workforces, a local corporate research firm said Sunday.

A total of 5,284 workers were let go from 54 firms between January and June this year, compared to a year ago, according to data by Chaebul.com.

Korea’s biggest conglomerate Samsung Group shed the highest number of employees.

Battery provider Samsung SDI, for instance, last year announced that it planned to cut some 12,000 senior employees by 2016.

Manpower at IT giant Samsung Electronics totaled 95,420 workers in the first half of this year, down 3,579 employees from a year earlier, data by the research firm showed.

Samsung Heavy Industries let go of 1,756 workers, followed by Samsung SDI and Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ reduction of 1,741 workers and 1,697 workers, respectively. 



Machinery manufacturer Doosan Infracore slashed the number of employees by half to 2,515 workers. The firm is undergoing a reshuffle to improve its financial structure, as the company has been hard hit by reduced demand in China.

Meanwhile, Korea’s full-service carrier Asiana Airlines, and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering also carried out major job cuts. 

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)