Korea Business Review · Section
DEEP ANALYSIS
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DEEP ANALYSIS
Why Germans Overestimated Chinese Investment by 30x, and Why Trust Doesn't Change Even When the Numbers Are Corrected
A 2026 study based on 2023 German survey data analyzes why the accuracy of information and trust in relationships remain distinct challenges in foreign investment.
이우리 선임기자 · 09/20/2026
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DEEP ANALYSIS
Vietnam, Once Called the Land of Opportunity: Is It Still?
박소유 책임기자 · 09/18/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Seoul Ranks 5th Globally in Innovation Clusters: Conditions for Collaboration and Commercialization that Businesses Must Read from WIPO Rankings
박소유 책임기자 · 09/17/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
July M2 Rises 0.3%, Showing Divergence Between Corporate and Household Currency Holdings
강지혜 선임기자 · 09/15/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Half of South Korean Students Already Study with AI… Five Essential Competencies Our Children Need
최수진 기자 · 09/14/2026
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.
이지영 기자 · 08/12/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Companies That Post the Same Job Openings All Year Long: Job Seekers Already Know
According to a Korea Employers Federation (KEF) survey, enterprises planning new hires increased to 66.6% this year, but the job market continues to reorganize around rolling and job-centric recruitment. Job seekers avoid identical position postings that repeat all year round, perceiving them as red flags for 'constant turnover' or potential ghost jobs. Negative evaluations of management and organizational culture accumulated on review platforms like Jobplanet act as exclusion factors starting from the application stage. Postings with unclear salaries, job roles, and employment types lose trust faster amid the gap between college graduates' expected salary (40.23 million won) and actual posted salaries (37.08 million won). Companies with poor websites and search information fail job seekers' self-verification processes, ultimately proving that transparency in recruitment branding dictates the competitiveness of securing talent.
류현진 선임기자 · 07/18/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Are Job Postings Increasing or Decreasing? The Two Faces of the 2026 Hiring Market Told by Numbers
While job openings (1.464 million, +3.4%) and hires (1.368 million, +4.6%) increased in the first quarter of 2026, planned hires for the second and third quarters (460,000) fell below the shortage of workers (467,000) for the first time since statistics began. Entry-level regular job postings at major corporations plummeted 43% year-over-year between January and November 2025, and only 2.6% of private platform postings in the first half of the year were for entry-level applicants. Employed persons decreased for the first time in 17 months (-40,000) in May, with youth employment plunging by 255,000, concentrating the shock on young people. Although the proportion of companies planning new hires rebounded to 66.6% in a Korea Enterprises Federation survey, the "format" of hiring shifted completely to rolling recruitment (54.8%) and job-experience-centric evaluation (67.6%). Global data from Gartner and Indeed also point to conservative hiring driven by AI transformation, making the second half of the year a critical turning point that will distinguish temporary adjustment from structural contraction.
박소유 책임기자 · 07/10/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Claude Fable 5 Returns in 19 Days: Why the First Commercial AI Switched Off by the U.S. Government Came Back on July 1 with New Safeguards
Anthropic's top-tier model, Claude Fable 5, returned globally on July 1, 19 days after its service was suspended. Launched on June 9, the service was completely halted three days later when the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export controls following a 'jailbreak' report by Amazon researchers. Anthropic contested the basis of the action, arguing that other models yield the same results, and engaged in negotiations with the government for about two weeks. As a condition for the return, a new classifier capable of blocking the technique by over 99% was introduced, with Opus 4.8 responding in its place when blocked. Marking the first export control case applied to commercial AI, the incident leaves behind tasks such as refining AI regulatory procedures and the need for corporate model diversification.
강지혜 선임기자 · 07/02/2026
DEEP ANALYSIS
Another Workplace After Clocking Out: A Growing Number of 4050 Breadwinners Are Working Second Jobs
The number of multiple-job holders (side-hustlers) practicing a secondary occupation alongside their primary jobs reached an all-time high of approximately 680,000 as of early November 2025, continuing an upward trend for nearly two years. While the absolute scale remains largest among those aged 60 and older, growth is notably pronounced among youth and individuals in their 40s, highlighting subsistence-driven side jobs taken on by 40- and 50-year-old breadwinners simultaneously juggling children's education and housing costs. The types of side jobs have expanded beyond delivery and designated driving to micro-office tasks, online lectures, and data labeling, while rider app registrations among those in their 40s and 50s have also surged over the past few years. Although multiple-job holders generate higher total incomes, their hourly earnings are paradoxically lower, and their social insurance enrollment rates are low. Furthermore, an influx of delivery riders in 2026 has led to a decline in per-capita earnings. With falling real wages, record-high household debt, and employment instability overlapping to solidify side jobs as a survival strategy, extended working hours and blind spots in labor protection remain critical challenges.
강지혜 선임기자 · 06/24/2026
