South Korea's top 10 companies have been reluctant to hire young job seekers during the last five years, according to a local lawmaker, citing the government data.
Shim Sang-jung, a lawmaker of Justice Party, said the share of youth out of total employees of the nation’s top 10 conglomerates has continued to drop from 27.5 percent in 2010 to 25 percent in 2014, citing a report released by the Korea Employment Information Service.
Although LG Group's youth employee’s shares have hovered around 30 percent for the last five years, the share of young workers out of contract employees was highest with 54.2 percent to 73.9 percent among the 10 companies. Hanjin Group also has a high portion of youth employees among contract workers with 64.2 to 77.5 percent during the same period. The figure was around 10 percent level for Hyundai Motors, Posco and Hyundai Heavy Industries.
Samsung, SK, LG, Posco, GS and Hanwha have all seen a slow growth in hiring young job seekers since 2013. Samsung posted a minus growth in 2013 and 2014 with a negative 0.7 percent and 4.8 percent each. SK also saw a minus growth of a 3.9 percent and 4.2 percent during the same period.
The period of young employees worked for the top 10 companies stood at merely 27 months in 2014, reflecting their job insecurity among young workforce.
"The data shows that the nation’s top conglomerates amassing astronomical earnings have been shunning youth employment for the last years. It is necessary to impose strong obligations on the private firms with over 300 employees to hire more youth," said the lawmaker Shim.
