Over 40% of S. Korean firms plan to hire interns in H2: poll

More than 4 out of 10 South Korean companies plan to employ interns during the second half of the year mainly for the purpose of covering manpower shortages, a poll showed Monday.

According to the survey of 416 companies, taken by recruiting platform Saramin, 44 percent of the respondents said they have plans to hire interns in the July-December period.

The figure is higher than the percentage of intern-hiring firms a year earlier. About 33 percent of local firms employed interns during the same period a year ago.

Solving the problem of manpower shortages is their top reason (77 percent), followed by the need for supporting manpower (about 33 percent) and business expansion (15 percent).

Those companies are moving to employ an average of three interns during the six-month period, with roughly 44 percent saying they will hire more this year.

The poll also showed 35 percent of the corporations having plans to convert interns into regular workers and the average service period of interns amounting to four years and eight months. (Yonhap)