Hiring at major listed firms shows minimal growth: report

SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's largest listed companies showed only a
minor uptick in employment numbers over the past five years, a report showed
Sunday, suggesting that local corporate giants have yet to respond to the
government's job creation drive.
According to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service, the number of
people employed with the nation's 90 leading firms increased by a mere 1.58
percent to 592,372 at the end of last year from 583,103 in 2005.
"Jobless growth in the local manufacturing industry has set in since the early
2000s as companies have expanded outsourcing and overseas investments," said Bae
Min-geun, a researcher at LG Economic Research Institute.
The slight rise in jobs last year stemmed from a rapid economic recovery and the
government's move to increase jobs.
Samsung Electronics Co., the world's second-largest handset maker, increased the
number of its employees to 85,085 last year, up 5 percent from 80,594 at the end
of 2005.
The data also showed that the average per-capita annual income for employees of
the 90 companies stood at 49.56 million won (US$44,104) as of the end of last
year, up 6.7 percent from 46.44 million won in 2005.
The wage gap between female and male workers, meanwhile, further expanded between
2005 and 2009 as female employees earned 66.2 percent of the salaries paid to
their male counterparts. The ratio stood at 79.6 percent in 2005.
South Korea's jobless rate stood at 4.9 percent in February, compared with 5
percent the previous month, according to Statistics Korea.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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