It was found that more than 15,000 workers needed on domestic corporations' research and development (R&D) sites are lacking, and nearly half of them are in the 12 national strategic technology fields. As the shortage of R&D workers stands out more than the labor shortage across industry, some analysts say the sense on the ground of advanced technology competitiveness is growing.
The Korea Industrial Technology Association said on the 29th that it released the results of the "2025 corporations research workforce supply and demand survey," noting that the imbalance in supply and demand for personnel is continuing, centering on corporate-affiliated research institutes.
According to the survey, the number of corporations' research workers is 409,160, of which 15,101 are lacking. The shortage rate is 3.6%, higher than the overall industry labor shortage rate (2.5%) and the overall industrial technology workforce shortage rate (2.2%). The association diagnosed the R&D hiring market as "a pattern in which hiring difficulties and job mismatches are intensifying together."
The gap was particularly pronounced in the 12 national strategic technology fields. Research workers at corporations' research institutes in these fields number 125,051, accounting for 30.6% of the total, but the shortage is 6,886, or 45.6% of the total shortfall. The more advanced the technology field, the faster the demand for workers is growing.
By technology field, the largest shortfalls were in semiconductors and displays (1,540), artificial intelligence (AI) (1,394), and advanced bio (1,392). By shortage rate, next-generation nuclear power (16%) was the highest, followed by cyber security (11.8%) and advanced robots and manufacturing (8.9%).
By education, bachelor's degree holders had the largest shortage at 8,546, followed by master's at 4,447 and doctorates at 1,538. However, shortage rates rose with higher degrees—bachelor's 3.5%, master's 4.0%, doctorate 4.8%—so it was found that supply and demand for high-level researchers is relatively tighter.
Looking only at the national strategic technology fields, the concentration in high-level personnel was even clearer. Of the shortage in master's degree holders, 51.4%, and of the shortage in doctorates, 60.8%, occurred in the 12 national strategic technology fields, suggesting intensified competition to secure highly educated researchers in core areas.
Regional gaps were also identified. The research worker shortage rate at corporations in the greater Seoul area is 3.0%, while it is higher outside the capital area at 5.1%. Among non-capital regions, the Honam region (8.0%), Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (7.1%), and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (6.1%) showed relatively high shortage rates.
Despite this labor crunch, corporations' hiring plans were found to have decreased instead. The number of research workers corporations plan to hire next year is 19,463, a sharp drop from the actual hires over the past year (26,392). This is seen as the result of multiple factors, including economic uncertainty, labor cost burdens, and a preference for immediately deployable talent.
Regarding government support policies, the Korea Industrial Technology Association said corporations need to strengthen hiring support programs, such as supporting personnel exchanges and linkages between universities and corporations and providing information on research personnel.
Koh Seogon, executive vice chair of the Korea Industrial Technology Association, said, "The fact that the R&D worker shortage rate is higher than in other labor groups shows that both labor shortages and mismatches are deepening at the research and development sites that underpin industrial competitiveness," and emphasized, "In national strategic technology fields, securing high-level talent is directly linked to technological leadership, so we must swiftly prepare measures to strengthen industry-academia-research linkages and to cultivate and attract personnel in the mid to long term."