Job seekers look around a job consultation booth at the 2025 Korea Job Fair held at aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul on March 19. / Reporter Kwon Do-hyun

The share of employees in their 20s at Korea's largest companies has plummeted from 25 percent to 21 percent in two years, according to a new study. The CEO Score of the Korea Enterprise Data Institute (KEDI) on Saturday released the results of a survey on the number and proportion of employees by age group from 2022 to 2024 for 67 of the 100 largest companies in Korea by revenue that have published their 2025 Sustainability Report.

The proportion of employees in their 20s decreased by 3.8 percentage points in two years, from 24.8 percent in 2022 to 21.0 percent in 2024. The number of employees decreased by 47,498 in two years, from 291,235 in 2022 to 243,737 in 2024, while the number of employees aged 30 and older increased by 35,232 over the same period.

More than half (56.7 percent) of the large organizations surveyed had fewer employees in their 20s. Looking at the largest companies by revenue in each of the four groups, Samsung Electronics saw its share of 20s drop from 30.8percent in 2022 to 24.2 percent in 2024. SK Hynix saw the largest drop, from 29.6 percent to 20.8 percent.

By company, Samsung Display saw the largest drop in 20-somethings, dropping 15.4 percentage points from 43.8percent to 28.4 percent.

SK On (12.3 percentage points), LG Innotek (8.9 percentage points), SK Hynix (8.8 percentage points), Samsung SDI (7.9 percentage points), Naver (7.1 percentage points), Samsung Electronics (6.6 percentage points), Hanwha Solutions (6.4 percentage points), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (5.9 percentage points), and LG Display (5.6 percentage points) followed.

“This is likely due to the growing economic uncertainty, which has led companies to eliminate or reduce new hires, switch to rolling recruitment, and favor experienced employees,” said Cho Won-man, CEO of CEO Score.