DEEP ANALYSIS

“We're Hiring, But Fewer Than 10 People”… The 2026 Second-Half Recruitment Market Trend Through Hiring Data

According to a JobKorea survey of 569 human resources managers, 78.7% of companies plan to hire in the second half of the year, but 78.9% of them plan to hire 10 or fewer people, with 74.3% allocating budgets of less than 3 million won, pointing to the spread of 'long-tail hiring'. Data compiled by Catch showed that regular full-time job postings plummeted by 64% over two years, lowering their share to 50%, while the proportions of contract workers (from 25% to 34%) and interns (from 7% to 11%) increased. A Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) survey found that postings exclusively for entry-level applicants stood at just 2.6%, while a Wantedlab survey showed that companies most frequently sought workers with 4 to 7 years of experience (49.7%), demonstrating a clear preference for personnel who can be immediately deployed to practical tasks. While sales maintained the largest scale based on JobKorea platform data, postings increased in human resources/HR (+12%), planning (+9%), and marketing (+7%), while AI, development, and data alone decreased (-4%), a decline JobKorea analyzed as the impact of shifting to ad-hoc, small-scale recruitment (JobKorea's own interpretation). Amid the July employment trends announced the same day showing the youth unemployment rate rising by 6.8%—the largest increase in 5 years and 6 months—various indicators commonly point to the likelihood that an increase in second-half job postings and 'narrow gates' will appear together.