Little over one-third of South Korean conglomerates are planning to hire college graduates in the second half with the rest undecided or having no plans, a survey showed Tuesday.

The findings by Job Korea, a portal for employers and jobseekers, showed that 155, or 37.4 percent, of the 414 firms that responded to the poll expressed plans to recruit new people in the coming months. The same survey, however, showed 125 (30.2 percent) have no plans to hire workers, with 134 (32.4 percent) undecided in regards to hiring.

The latest survey carried out on the country's top 500 companies in terms of sales gives a bleaker outlook on the country's jobs than last year. In the same poll in August 2016, 54.7 percent said there would be new hirings.


Food and beverage companies are expected to be the biggest employers moving forward, with 66.7 percent of them saying they plan to take on more workers. In contrast, two-thirds of machinery, steel, shipbuilding and heavy industries firms said they will skip hirings for the rest of this year.

The 155 companies that will be hiring are expected to employ 20,389 people in total, more than 17,491 new entrants in the latter half of last year. They break down to 6,025 in electronics, 3,030 in auto and transportation, 1,940 in food and beverages, 1,920 in trade and retail, and 1,909 in finance.

The same survey said the annual salary for new hires at conglomerates in the second half of this year averaged 39.2 million won ($34,401). The shipbuilding and heavy industries sector paid the highest at 43.83 million won, followed by machinery (41.73 million won), finance (41.43 million won), construction (40.98 million won), petrochemicals (40.15 million won) and IT (40.14 million won). (Yonhap)