
South Korea's major companies slightly increased their workforce last year, with tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. seeing the largest expansion despite challenges in its flagship semiconductor business, a corporate tracker said Wednesday.
The total number of subscribers to the state-run National Pension Service at 468 out of the country's top 500 firms by sales reached 1.59 million as of end-December, marking a 0.3 percent increase from 1.58 million tallied a year earlier, according to CEO Score.
In South Korea, most regular workers are enrolled in the NPS, a pension plan where both employers and employees contribute to retirement funds under the state-run system.
Samsung Electronics had the highest number of wage workers covered by the national pension scheme at 125,000, followed by Hyundai Motor Co. with 69,000, LG Electronics Inc. 36,000, Kia Corp 33,000 and SK hynix Inc. 31,000.
Samsung Electronics also led the job growth, adding 4,716 new positions last year. CJ Olive Young Corp., a beauty and health care chain, expanded employment by 2,224, while Korea Railroad Corp. added 1,359 jobs.
The increase in hiring came despite Samsung facing strong headwinds in the competitive semiconductor market, largely due to sluggish performance in artificial intelligence chip sales.
In contrast, LG Innotek Co., an electronics component manufacturing unit of LG Group, logged the biggest job decrease of 2,391, trailed by LG Display with 2,346 and E-Mart with 1,293. (Yonhap)