Job seekers still prefer large corporations and high salaries, but as the job crunch drags on, more are lowering their salary expectations and choosing more realistic job-hunting strategies, a survey found.
On the 11th, the hiring platform Jinhaksa Catch said that in a survey of 1,204 job seekers on "companies they want to join in 2026," 62% of respondents picked "large corporations" as their employment target.
Next were public corporations and public institutions (12%), mid-sized corporations (12%), foreign corporations (6%), and small and medium-sized corporations (5%).
The most important factor when choosing corporations was salary. Fifty-three percent of respondents chose "corporations with high salaries" as the most important condition when choosing corporations. That was followed by work-life balance (16%), benefits (12%), growth (8%), colleagues (6%), work environment (4%), and location (1%).
However, amid the prolonged job crunch, desired salaries were adjusted downward. The average desired starting salary for 2026 was about 43 million won, down 4 million won from about 47 million won last year.
In particular, the minimum salary that respondents could realistically consider for joining a company averaged 40 million won. Although lower than the desired starting salary, this is interpreted as setting the starting salary level of mid-sized corporations as a realistic baseline.
This shift in perception was also clear in actual corporation choices. Given the same pay level, 64% said they would "first take a full-time job at a small and medium-sized corporation," higher than the 36% who said they would "prepare for jobs at large corporations while working part-time."