Many South Korean conglomerates will likely add the same number of employees or boost their hiring slightly in 2014 compared to the year before, a poll carried out by the lobbying group of large businesses showed Tuesday.

According to the Federation of Korean Industries survey carried out on the top 300 large businesses in terms of sales, 52.9 percent said they will hire the same number of workers as in 2013, with 15.1 percent saying they will increase hiring.

It said while 68 percent of companies wanted to maintain a steady inflow of manpower, 32 percent responded by saying they would reduce hiring for this year.

Of these, 36.4 percent cited worsening conditions in their respective business areas, with 22.7 percent expressing concerns about their corporate health. Another 10.6 percent said they were scaling back due to unfavorable economic developments at home and abroad.

The FKI survey showed 56.8 percent of companies generally hired more employees with backgrounds in natural sciences and engineering than in liberal arts. Only 14.6 percent said they had more employees with a liberal arts education. (Yonhap)