South Korea’s 30 largest business groups are down around 500 executives in the last year amid the nation’s prolonged economic slowdown, according to industry data Wednesday.
Corporate researcher CEO Score said the total number of executives of the nation’s 30 largest conglomerates stood at 9,632 as of May, a drop of 4.8 percent from the same period of last year.
By title, vice presidents, the lowest level among Korean executives, vacated the most jobs, accounting for more than half of total cuts. Their numbers came to 5,615, a 4.3 percent drop on-year.
The number of senior vice presidents and executive vice presidents were each reduced by 58, down minus 5.3 percent, and 15, down 2.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of presidents rose by eight, to 242.
By group, Samsung has cut executives the most. The nation’s largest conglomerate has seen a decline of 374 executives, with around 100 executives leaving the company in the process of selling the group’s defense and chemistry arms to Hanwha Group and Lotte Group.
Doosan Group also saw a drop of around 100 executives, with Doosan Infracore reducing 58 executives. POSCO and Kumho Asiana also were down 53 vice presidents each.
By Shin Ji-hye (
shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
