A survey result showed that more than half of medium-sized enterprises responded they have no plans for new hires in the second half of the year.
According to the '2025 Second Half Employment Outlook Survey for Medium-sized Enterprises' released on the 21st by the Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea (FDMEK), 56% of the surveyed medium-sized enterprises reported that they have no employment plans for the second half of the year. This survey was conducted among 800 medium-sized enterprises from May 26 to June 10.
The survey results indicated that medium-sized enterprises did not set plans for new hires due to reasons such as deteriorating performance and tight management (28.3%), increasing labor costs (28.1%), and concerns over economic decline (20.6%).
Among medium-sized enterprises with plans for new hires, 77% anticipated maintaining (59.1%) or expanding (17.9%) their hiring scale compared to the first half of the year. The percentage of medium-sized enterprises that expected to reduce their hiring scale was 23%. The types of new hires were 45.5% new employees and 40.9% experienced hires, with regular positions accounting for 86.4%, while the proportion of contract positions was 13.6%.
The primary reason for expanding hiring compared to the first half of the year was 'replenishing workforce due to personnel turnover,' at 38.1%. 'Business expansion and new business pursuits' (25.4%) and 'performance improvement' (22.2%) followed.
Medium-sized enterprises are still struggling to secure workforce. 88% of medium-sized enterprises reported that they find it difficult to locate qualified personnel in fields such as technology and production (30.3%), research and development (23.8%), sales and marketing (16.3%), and office and administration (15.0%).
To solve the workforce issues, they responded that policy support should be strengthened, including expanding employment support programs (25.1%), enhancing employment flexibility (21.1%), increasing tax support (20.5%), and strengthening manpower training programs (14.9%).
Lee Ho-jun, the executive vice president of the Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea (FDMEK), noted, 'To restore the youth employment rate and realize the hiring outlook of medium-sized enterprises, it is urgent to strengthen job support policies by each department based on field demand,' and added, 'From the perspective of corporate growth, which underpins jobs, solutions must be sought for labor issues such as retirement extension, regular wage and working hour reforms.'