Hiring Dwindles to Lowest in a Decade in Pandemic

Hiring of university graduates has fallen to the lowest level in nearly a decade as businesses cut back during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Korea Enterprises Federation said Tuesday that the hiring rate for fresh college graduates stood at a mere 37.1 percent in 2020, down 3.4 percentage points from 2019 and the lowest since 2013.

Lim Young-tae at the federation said, "Since 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic started, businesses have postponed new hires."

Hiring of fresh graduates peaked at 51.4 percent in 2016 and recovered a little from the 2020 trough to 42.3 percent this year.

But the proportion of full-time workers dropped from 69.8 percent in 2019 to 55.1 percent this year, while the ratio of part-time workers rose from 23.6 percent to 41.3 percent over the same period.