Major South Korean companies are set to recruit more employees in the second half of the year than a year earlier as the economy is on a solid growth path, a poll said Wednesday.

According to the joint survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Incruit, a local online job placement portal, 338 companies plan to hire a combined 17,361 employees in the July-December period, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier.

The figure is also up 58 percent from the first six months of the year. The survey was conducted on the country’s top 500 companies by sales, with 411 replying, the KCCI said.

“Employment in the second half will surpass last year’s level, backed by gradual improvements in the construction and financial sectors and greater recruitment by large tech firms,” said the KCCI in a statement.

A total of 125 companies, or 30.4 percent of the respondents, said they have no plans to create jobs in the second half, while 73 companies, or 15.8 percent, said that they have yet to decide on whether to increase their payrolls.

By sector, electric and electronic companies will increase the number of recruits by 6,108, followed by financial firms with 2,153 and retailers with 1,718, according to the survey.

South Korea’s jobless rate stood at 3.3 percent in June, up from 3.2 percent in May, according to a report by Statistics Korea. 

(Yonhap News)