Employment of South Korea‘s top 10 conglomerates rises in Q3

Despite an economic sluggishness, the combined payroll number of companies affiliated with South Korea's top 10 conglomerates increased 5.9 percent to 631,490 in the third quarter of this year from the same period last year, a website said on Dec. 14.

This means that the companies added about 35,300 people to their payroll during the cited period, said the website, CEOScore, based on regulatory filings by 93 listed companies affiliated with the conglomerates.

Samsung Group employed the largest number of people in the period, CEOScore said. It brought the total number of its workers to 205,269 in the July-September period of this year from 186,648 a year earlier.

Hanwha Group's total employment amounted to 19,848 as of the end of September, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, followed by Hyundai Motor with 121,734 employees, up 6.8 percent, CEOScore said.

According to South Korea's statistics office, the country's jobless rate in November remained unchanged at 2.8 percent from the previous month.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com