Employees working for S. Korea's large conglomerates top 1 mln in 2010

SEOUL, June 6 (Yonhap) -- Employees working for South Korea's 30 largest conglomerates topped 1 million in 2010, up 90,000 compared to the year before, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said Monday. The umbrella group representing the interests of large businesses said there were 1.06 million people working for such companies as Samsung Electronics Co., Hyundai Motor Co., SK Telecom and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. last year, up from 970,000 tallied in 2009. "The increase reflects concerted efforts by local conglomerates to hire more people to mirror industrial growth potential and engage in long-term investments to ensure sustainable growth down the line," the federation said. It pointed out that the 9.5 percent gain in employees is much higher than the 3.1 percent increase in the number of salaried workers hired by companies for the entire country. The FKI also said that last year's 9.5 percent figure surpassed gains in the past few years. In 2008, large conglomerates increased their number of employees by 3.4 percent, followed by 4.0 percent gains the next year.