April 23, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The top 30 business groups made big gains in operating profits up to third quarter of this year, but they have not hired a lot of new people, corporate data showed on Nov. 16.

CEO Score, a local corporate research firm, analyzed 261 affiliates of the top 30 conglomerates that submitted business reports for the third quarter. Results showed that the companies had 945,067 staff members as of the end of September, up 1.2 percent, or 11,452 people, from the same period last year.

The number of employees in permanent positions increased less, up just 0.7 percent to 879,979, while that for contract workers jumped 8.3 percent to 65,088.

The operating profits of the firms jumped 65.4 percent to total 82.72 trillion won (US$74.65 billion) during the cited months.

By business group, LG hired the most, adding 4,793 workers over the one-year period. GS added 4,518 employees, Daelim 2,388, Samsung 2,074, Hyundai Motor 1,505 and POSCO 1,216.

Data showed that chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, who together employed 5,583 new workers, accounted for more than half of the total hires during the period. SK hynix added 1,121 people to its staff.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)