Job Competition Ratio Hits Record High

“The job competition seems extremely fierce. The competition ratio reached 400-to-1,” said Shin Sung-yong at the human resources department of Binggrae, which tried to fill a few job vacancies at the end of March.

A total of 1,600 applicants on- and off-line rushed to fill the only four job openings. About 1,340 people applied for the two vacant posts for sales and management that did not limit the areas of study while 250 holders of the first-level certification applied for the one post for an engineer of environment and water quality.

“The recruitment market is usually less than active around this time. With the increasing trend of on-line application, the job competition is becoming fiercer compared to the ratio of regular recruitment 200 to 1 in June last year,” Shin said.

Online recruitment information agency Joblink said it found in a recent poll of 53 major companies that the average competition ratio by April reached 83-to-1.

This is much higher compared to the 75-to-1 in last year`s first half, and 67-to-1 in the second half. This suggests fiercer competition with the increasing number of job applicants despite the sharply decreasing recruitment. In particular, Joblink said 12 out of the 53 companies received twice the number of job applicants from a year ago.

Binggrae marked the highest competition ratio of 400-to-1, breaking the past highest record of 340-to-1 set by INI Steel last year, when a total of 6,958 job searchers came forward for a total of 20 vacancies. In addition, Shinsaegae Dream Express saw the ratio of 375-to-1, followed by Amore Pacific with 260-to-1, Enprani Corp. with 250-to-1 and Hyosung Group with 200-to-1.

The abilities and foreign language skills of the job applicants are also getting better, indicating fiercer competition in job searchers` quality as well as the number of them.

Personnel managers at the furniture company Livart were astonished when the average TOEIC score of the applicants rose over 100 points in a year, to 850 points from 750 points last year. Moreover, Daewoo International, Haechandle and CJ Systems also said they are receiving an increasing number of applicants holding at least a Master`s degree, suggesting the job searchers` educational background is becoming higher.

“The recruitment market has shrunk due to the Iraqi war, the nuclear standoff, and the economic slump,” said Joblink President Hahn Hyun-sook. “When the economic uncertainty at home and abroad is resolved and companies start the active investment, the recruitment market will revive,” she added.

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com