Only One Among Top Four Groups: Why Has Samsung Kept 'Open Recruitment' for 70 Years?

1. The Only '70-Year-Old Door' Standing Amid Large Corporations' Shift to Year-Round Hiring

On September 8, application submissions began on Samsung's recruitment website, "Samsung Careers." Nineteen affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics, and Samsung SDI, simultaneously launched open recruitment for entry-level employees for the second half of the year. Applications will be accepted through September 15, followed by job suitability assessments, the Global Samsung Aptitude Test (GSAT), interviews, and health checkups. Software applicants will take a coding test instead of the GSAT, while design applicants will undergo a portfolio review.

Samsung has maintained this system for 70 years this year since launching the nation's first open recruitment for entry-level employees in 1957. Among the so-called top four conglomerates—Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG—Samsung is the only group that continues regular open recruitment. Now that most companies have abolished open recruitment and transitioned to year-round hiring, Samsung stands alone.

Samsung has consistently stated that it will continue expanding youth employment alongside investments in future industries. Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee stated at a business leaders' meeting in August of last year, "We will continue relevant investments to steadily create high-quality jobs domestically and foster high-value-added industries."

Earlier in 2022, Samsung announced a large-scale hiring plan to directly hire 80,000 people over the subsequent five years, averaging 16,000 people per year.

2. Structural Reasons Why Young Job Seekers Flock to 'Samsung's Open Recruitment'

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) points to the mismatch between education and the labor market, as well as the disparities between large conglomerates and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and between regular and non-regular workers, as structural problems in South Korea's youth employment. In fact, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, non-regular workers accounted for 37% of wage earners in 2023.

The OECD analyzes that the significant gaps in wages, employment stability, and welfare between South Korea's large corporations and SMEs cause many young people to favor stable jobs in conglomerates or the public sector over SMEs. A phenomenon of postponing entry into the labor market altogether to secure desired jobs has also emerged.

Samsung's open recruitment is not merely a single corporation's hiring notice; for young job seekers, it remains one of the largest and most predictable gateways into regular corporate employment.

3. Semiconductor and AI Facility Investment and the Global Race to Secure Talent

The industrial environment surrounding open recruitment in the second half of this year is also shifting rapidly: namely, the recovery of the semiconductor industry and the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) market.

The OECD recently assessed semiconductor exports as one of the key growth engines driving the South Korean economy. Samsung Electronics is also continuing large-scale investments in advanced semiconductor facilities and research and development (R&D) to secure competitiveness in the AI semiconductor era.

For investments of this scale to translate into actual production and technological competitiveness, people are ultimately required to design, develop, and manufacture products. In the semiconductor and AI industries, securing talent is not merely a cost issue, but a critical element that transforms investment into real competitiveness.

The talent shortage is not unique to South Korea. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in the United States and Oxford Economics projected that roughly 115,000 jobs will be added to the U.S. semiconductor industry by 2030. However, under current trends, they estimated that about 67,000 of those jobs will remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has also noted that the EU semiconductor industry is facing difficulties in securing skilled personnel.

The AI sector faces the same challenge. According to the OECD, 53% of South Korean SMEs that have not adopted generative AI cited their employees' lack of relevant skills as the biggest obstacle.

Ultimately, high-tech industry competition is not only about how large factories are built and how much money is invested, but also about how stably companies can secure the skilled talent they need.

4. Moving Beyond Credentials: Corporations Step Up as Providers of 'Practical Competence'

In addition to open recruitment, Samsung operates diverse talent development programs. The most prominent is the Samsung Software Academy for Youth (SSAFY). It provides free software and AI training to young adults across five campuses nationwide: Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju, Gumi, and Busan. Around 2,000 individuals receive training each year, and since 2019, approximately 9,400 graduates have found employment at more than 2,600 domestic and international companies. Recently, eligibility was expanded from university graduates to graduates of Meister high schools.

The significance of this program aligns with another structural issue in the South Korean labor market highlighted by the OECD: the mismatch between capabilities acquired in educational institutions and the skills actually required by companies—the so-called "skill mismatch." Corporations are going beyond simply hiring the personnel they need by taking on the role of training talent directly and supplying them to industrial fields.

5. The Race for High-Tech Talent and the Dual Labor Market Structure

Samsung's hiring methods have also evolved with the times. Samsung established open recruitment specifically for female college graduates in 1993, and in 1995, it eliminated academic credential restrictions from eligibility requirements, expanding "open hiring."

The composition of required talent is also changing. According to Samsung Electronics' sustainability report, the global workforce in R&D and development positions rose from around 84,000 in 2023 to approximately 89,000 in 2025. Over the same period, manufacturing personnel decreased from about 110,000 to around 103,000. Although manufacturing workers still outnumber developers, the trend highlights the growing importance of R&D talent amid intensifying high-tech competition.

Connecting the popularity of Samsung's open recruitment to the structural issues in South Korea's labor market identified by the OECD reveals another perspective. While Samsung's open recruitment may be an inclusive hiring method at the individual corporate level, the phenomenon of countless young job seekers waiting for recruitment openings at a small number of conglomerates can be seen as a signal pointing to a "shortage of good jobs" in South Korea's labor market.

Because the gap in wages and job stability between regular positions at large conglomerates and jobs at SMEs or non-regular roles is wide, young job seekers tend to prolong their preparation periods to aim for "jobs like Samsung" rather than settling for any job.

The fact that Samsung's open recruitment has survived for 70 years reflects more than just the company's distinctive talent selection process. It demonstrates what kind of workforce corporations require in the semiconductor and AI era, while also showing why South Korean youth continue to line up in front of a small number of "good jobs."


Deep Dive Q&A
Q1. Why did the other top four groups (SK, Hyundai Motor, LG) abolish open recruitment and transition to year-round hiring?

This was done to secure talent for specific roles as needed in response to rapidly shifting market conditions and to quickly deploy personnel with specialized expertise. In contrast, Samsung maintains the method of selecting talent through large-scale open recruitment and cultivating them through internal training. As the background for maintaining open recruitment, Samsung emphasizes securing talent for future industries and providing high-quality employment opportunities to young adults.

Q2. Can corporate-led training programs like SSAFY serve as a solution to youth employment issues?

They represent a meaningful alternative in that they can swiftly bridge the skill mismatch between university education and industrial demands. The OECD has also highlighted the skill mismatch between education and industry demand in the South Korean labor market. SSAFY has established itself as a talent cultivation model where a company directly teaches practical capabilities, recording an employment rate of over 80% based on previously released graduate data. However, corporate training alone cannot resolve the entirety of youth employment challenges. Structural problems in the labor market, such as disparities in wages and employment stability between conglomerates and SMEs, must be addressed in tandem.

Q3. What does Samsung's massive R&D investment and retention of open recruitment mean for the South Korean economy?

In the global semiconductor and AI race, securing skilled talent to develop and operate technology and facilities in a stable manner is just as crucial as having the facilities themselves. Samsung's large-scale investments, open recruitment, and internal talent training serve to sustain this labor supply base. At the same time, the influx of young applicants to Samsung's open recruitment reflects the employment gap between conglomerates and SMEs—a snapshot of the dual labor market structure.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.