00:02You're listening to AI PRISM from Seoul Economic Daily.
00:06Before you submit that application, the hiring data out of Korea just changed the calculus.
00:13Big companies added 40,000 new permanent jobs this year and 70,000 fixed-term ones.
00:21Fixed-term hires now make up almost 30% of the workforce at Korea's largest employers.
00:27Kyobo Securities just opened a fresh graduate hiring round with no major restrictions.
00:33The type of contract on offer matters as much as which company makes it.
00:39It's Wednesday, September 30th.
00:42Let's look at what this means for job seekers and graduates in Korea.
00:47Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor released its 2026 Employment-Type Disclosure today,
00:53covering 4,205 companies with 300 or more employees, the country's largest formal employers.
01:01The data shows these companies are still hiring, but a growing share of that hiring is fixed-term rather than
01:08permanent.
01:09Against that backdrop, individual firms like Kyobo Securities are running open graduate recruitment rounds
01:16that don't restrict applicants by major, giving job seekers a real, current entry point to weigh against the broader trend.
01:24Here's what the numbers show.
01:26Large employers added 107,000 directly hired workers this year,
01:32but fixed-term hires accounted for 67,000 of that gain versus just 41,000 permanent hires.
01:39Fixed-term workers now hold a 28.3% share of the workforce of these companies, up from 22.8
01:47% just five years ago.
01:50Kyobo Securities opened its 2026 second-half graduate recruitment today for headquarters sales,
01:57headquarters support, and branch sales roles,
02:00open to any four-year graduate or February 2027 graduate, regardless of major.
02:07Applications for Kyobo close on October 5th,
02:10and the branch sales track runs as a higher-linked internship,
02:14about three weeks of training and field experience before a final interview decides permanent status.
02:21Samsung Heavy Industries separately committed to hiring 50 production workers a year starting next year,
02:27with 20 of those slots reserved for candidates from the Kyogye region.
02:32The health care and welfare sector added 44,000 workers this year,
02:36roughly half of the nationwide increase,
02:39but most of those hires came in as fixed-term or part-time roles.
02:44So what does this mean for job seekers and graduates in Korea?
02:48Earlier, we said the type of contract matters as much as which company makes the offer.
02:53Here's what that actually means for you.
02:56When you get an offer, ask directly whether the role is permanent or fixed-term,
03:01and if it's fixed-term, ask how the company has historically handled the two-year conversion point before you sign.
03:09Watch three things.
03:11Kyobo Securities' October 5th application deadline,
03:15whether Samsung Heavy Industries' new production hiring track opens applications beyond Kyogye candidates,
03:22and whether the Labor Ministry's promised review of the fixed-term system leads to real protections
03:28before your own contract comes up for renewal.
03:31That's today's AI Prism, students and grads.
03:35This episode was produced with AI assistance based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting
03:41and reviewed by a human editor.
03:44AI Prism is a Juan Ifra award-winning series.
03:48We'll be back tomorrow.
03:49You've been listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
