Major domestic IT service corporations are reducing new hires. As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly replaces tasks such as development and testing, demand for workers has decreased. Over the past three years, the share of employees under 30 at these corporations has fallen, while the share of employees 50 and older has increased.
On the 14th, according to each company's sustainability (ESG) report, most major IT service corporations reduced new hiring for 2025 compared with 2023. Samsung SDS decreased 33.0%, from 3,643 to 2,442. Hyundai AutoEver went from 915 to 517 (43.5%). LG CNS fell from 544 to 407 (25.2%). POSCO DX dropped from 248 to 107 (56.9%). Shinsegae I&C fell from 178 to 36 (79.8%). Only Lotte Innovate increased, rising from 135 to 142.
Compared with 2023, Samsung SDS saw employees under 30 decrease from 3,792 to 3,569 in 2025, while employees over 50 increased from 4,033 to 4,324. During the same period, Hyundai AutoEver's employees under 30 fell from 1,291 to 1,257, and employees 50 and older surged from 225 to 689. LG CNS also saw employees 29 and under drop from 888 to 761, while employees 50 and older rose from 1,839 to 2,103.
Shinsegae I&C likewise saw employees under 30 decrease from 243 to 105, while employees 50 and older increased from 61 to 116. Lotte Innovate also reduced employees under 30 from 714 to 503, but employees over 50 rose from 355 to 447. POSCO DX, by contrast, showed a different pattern. Employees under 30 increased from 322 to 341, while employees over 50 decreased from 784 to 741.
These corporations continued to grow earnings while cutting entry-level hiring. Samsung SDS posted 13.9299 trillion won in revenue and 957.1 billion won in operating profit in 2025. Compared with 2023, revenue rose 4.9% and operating profit rose 18.4%. LG CNS also recorded 6.1295 trillion won in revenue and 551.8 billion won in operating profit last year, up 9.4% and 18.9%, respectively, from 2023, but reduced new hiring.
Hyundai AutoEver logged 4.2521 trillion won in revenue and 255.3 billion won in operating profit last year, up 38.7% and 40.7%, respectively, from 2023, while new hiring fell 43.5%. Shinsegae I&C also increased last year's revenue and operating profit to 687.2 billion won and 49.1 billion won, respectively, up 11.0% and 22.9% from 2023, but new hiring plunged by about 80%.
Industry officials say demand for workers has declined since last year as the adoption of Generative AI gained momentum. As IT service corporations composed mainly of developers and office workers actively introduce coding tools and AI agents across operations, AI is replacing a significant portion of basic tasks. With repetitive tasks once handled by entry-level developers—such as code writing and testing, and document drafting—being automated, the need for large-scale entry hiring has become lower than before.
An IT service industry official said, "With the adoption of Generative AI improving development productivity, it is true that demand for entry-level talent has decreased compared with the past," adding, "Beyond simply filling headcount, entry-level hiring is an investment to secure future competitiveness and also carries significance for social job creation, so we plan to continue it while considering business conditions and labor demand."