Large firms cut jobs by more than 10,000 over two months

The number of workers subscribed to the national pension program has dropped by more than 10,000 over the past two months in South Korea, as the global COVID-19 pandemic has dampened corporate business, according to a local corporate tracker on Wednesday.

CEOScore surveyed 492 companies out of the nation’s top 500 companies on the number of their employees who joined the mandatory National Pension Service. According to the survey, the number of pension subscribers stood at around 1.6 million as of the end of March, down by 10,844 from February.

The distribution sector, which was most affected by the contraction of consumption activities due to the social distancing policy, saw the largest decline in the two months of February and March, down by more than 4,000 people.

The services, food and beverage sectors saw a drop of more than 1,000. Construction, transportation, shipbuilding, machinery, facilities, trading and household goods industries also saw a three-digit decrease in the number of employees.

By company, CJ CGV, which has been hit hard by COVID-19, had the largest number of workers on the decline. A total of 2,331 employees were cut over the two months. As cinemagoers plunged due to COVID-19, some theaters closed their doors and others reduced the number of screenings. The number of CJ CGV employees who began to subscribe to the national pension stood at 205 and 87 in February and March, respectively, but the number of people lost reached 1,189 and 1,434, respectively.

The next largest decline was by CJ Foodville, whose NPS-subscribed employees dropped by 1,629, and Starbucks Coffee Korea with 859 job cuts. Lotte Shopping, Asung Daiso, GS Retail and Korean Air were also listed in the top 10 by declining number of employees.

The job cuts are in contrast to the rise of pension subscribers by 3,443 during the same period last year.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)