Samsung to hire 5,500 employees in 2009

(ATTN: UPDATES with Samsung's statement, Fitch's downgrade on outlook of Samsung
Electronics; AMENDS headline)
SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Group, South Korea's largest business
conglomerate, said Wednesday it plans to hire 5,500 university graduates this
year, up from an earlier forecast of 4,000, despite a gloomy business outlook.
The move was apparently in line with the government-initiated "job sharing"
scheme, which calls for big companies to cut salaries and redirect savings from
the pay cuts into hiring more workers to avert American-style layoffs.
Samsung's affiliates had originally planned to reduce hiring of entry-level
full-time staff to 4,000 "due to the global economic downturn, but this was
revised upward to 5,500 in order to give greater opportunities to recent college
graduates," the group said in a statement.
However, Samsung said it hasn't set a group-wide investment plan for 2009, citing
an uncertain business environment.
"It's difficult to announce an investment plan (given the economic situation),"
said a Samsung official.
In January, Samsung Electronics Co., the group's crown jewel, reported its
first-ever quarterly loss in the final quarter of 2008 as the global slump wilted
demand for chips, mobile phones and flat-panel televisions.
The world's largest maker of computer memory chips posted a net loss of 20
billion won (US$13.5 million) for the quarter on sales of 2.21 trillion won.
On the same day, Fitch Ratings Inc. said it downgraded the rating outlook for
Samsung Electronics to "negative" from "stable" on concerns about the worsening
business outlook and increasing financial strain.
The revision "reflects the agency's view that Samsung Electronics Co.'s recent
poor operating performance is likely to continue during FY2009 and possibly
FY2010," Fitch said in the statement.
(END)