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(Bloomberg) — Samsung Group, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group announced plans to hire thousands of workers this year, signaling South Korea’s top conglomerates are responding to President Lee Jae Myung’s call to tackle the nation’s declining youth employment.
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Samsung said Thursday it will recruit 60,000 new staff in South Korea over the next five years — or about 12,000 annually through 2030 — with hiring concentrated in its core businesses of semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence.
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SK Group separately announced plans to add 8,000 new workers this year, including 4,000 already brought on in the first half. Hyundai Motor set a youth hiring target of 7,200 for this year and 10,000 for next year, the company said in a statement.
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The move follows President Lee’s remarks this week on declining youth employment, which he said has fallen for 16 consecutive months. The government is likely to unveil a package of measures on Sept. 22 to tackle the issue and Lee urged private-sector companies to support the effort. South Korea’s seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate reached 5.7% in August, compared with overall unemployment rate of 2.6%, according to government data.
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Lee’s administration is shoring up South Korea’s role as a key tech exporter and proposed a 728 trillion won ($522 billion) budget for 2026. Of that, 35.3 trillion won will be deployed to boost new industrial research and development and 10.1 trillion won devoted to AI.
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Thursday’s announcement reflects Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee’s commitment to upholding Samsung’s recruitment tradition, with youth employment a particular focus. Lee has made a point of supporting national and international skills competitions, often appearing in person to encourage participants.
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Samsung has long shaped Korea’s hiring culture. In 1957, it became the country’s first company to launch an open recruitment system, a practice it has upheld for nearly seven decades. It introduced hiring female college graduates in 1993 and eliminated academic requirements in 1995, setting precedents for the wider corporate sector.
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Currently, 19 Samsung units — including Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung C&T Corp. and Samsung Biologics Co. — are in the process of hiring.
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Samsung Group’s listed companies had a total of 221,221 employees in Korea in the first half of 2024, according to data from Korea’s financial regulator. Including closely held units and its overseas workforce, Samsung Group is estimated to have roughly 500,000 employees globally.
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SK Group, South Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate, is active across semiconductors, energy, batteries, telecommunications and life sciences.
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—With assistance from Soo-Hyang Choi and Whanwoong Choi.
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