[비즈한국] The number of employees at major domestic large companies dropped by approximately 5,000 over the past year. The telecommunications, retail, and petrochemical sectors saw the largest declines, while the shipbuilding, defense, pharmaceutical, and bio sectors moved in the opposite direction by increasing their workforce.
According to an analysis by the corporate research institute Leaders Index of 316 companies among the top 500 domestic firms that both submitted business reports and disclosed employee counts in a comparable manner to the previous year, the total number of employees fell by 5,046, from 1,234,616 in 2024 to 1,229,570 in 2025. Of this figure, the number of employees excluding executives decreased by 4,937, from 1,223,469 to 1,218,532, and non-registered executives decreased by 109, from 11,147 to 11,038. The rate of decline was 0.4% for employees and 1.0% for executives, indicating a sharper reduction among the latter. The number of employees per executive rose slightly from 109.8 to 110.4.
By sector, the telecommunications industry saw the largest decline. The number of employees across the three major telecom companies fell by 3,209, or 9.7%, from 32,991 in 2024 to 29,782 in 2025. By company, KT030200 recorded the largest decrease with 2,226 fewer employees, followed by LG Uplus with 806 and SK Telecom with 177. The retail sector also saw a decrease of 2,829 employees across 17 companies, dropping from 87,068 to 84,239. E-mart shed 1,473 employees, Lotte Shopping 1,120, and BGF Retail and Lotte Hi-Mart also showed a downward trend. The petrochemical sector also decreased by 2,373, from 53,138 to 50,765. LG Chem051910 saw a reduction of 988, Lotte Chemical 415, and Hanwha Solutions 407. Hyosung Chemical's decrease was 385.
Conversely, the shipbuilding and defense sectors showed a clear upward trend. The number of employees in this sector increased by 8.6%, rising by 7,032 from 81,960 at the end of 2024 to 88,992 at the end of 2025. Hanwha Ocean added 976 employees, followed by LIG Nex1 with 593, Hanwha Aerospace with 509, Samsung Heavy Industries with 477, and Hyundai Rotem with 359. The pharmaceutical and bio sector also grew by 4.1% based on six companies, from 15,792 to 16,438. Samsung Biologics increased by 444, and Celltrion by 252.
By individual company, SK Hynix000660 saw the largest increase in staff. SK Hynix grew by 2,159, from 32,390 to 34,549. It was followed by Hanwha Ocean (976), Kia (819), Samyang Foods (635), and LIG Nex1 (593). In contrast, the company with the largest reduction was Hyundai Motor Company with 2,539 fewer employees, followed by KT, LG Electronics, E-mart, and Lotte Shopping. Samsung Electronics005930 was also reported to have a decrease of 599.