Executives account for less than 1% of the workforce at South Korea's 100 largest companies this year. SK hynix (000660.KS) added 72 executives over the past year, while Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and LG Electronics (066570.KS) cut 25 and 19, respectively.
The ratio of executives to total staff at the top 100 companies stood at 0.83% this year, according to an analysis of promotion prospects at those firms released by Korea CXO Institute on the 19th. The study covered the 100 listed companies with the highest revenue on a separate-entity basis for 2025. The institute compared employee numbers with unregistered executive counts disclosed in each company's half-year report. Executives were limited to unregistered executives, who were also counted in the total employee figures.
Executive ranks grew faster than overall headcount. Total employment reached 862,163, up 1,087, or 0.1%, from 861,076 a year earlier. Over the same period, unregistered executives rose by 109, or 1.6%, to 7,137 from 7,028.
SK hynix stood out. Its unregistered executives climbed to 275 this year from 203, an increase of 72, or 35.5%, accounting for 66.1% of the net gain of 109 across all 100 companies. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180.KS) followed with 23 additions, ahead of Korean Air (003490.KS) with 12 and Mirae Asset Securities (006800.KS) with 11.
Hyundai Motor, by contrast, reduced its executive ranks to 451 from 476, a drop of 25, while LG Electronics went to 287 from 306, down 19. LG Electronics had 103 more executives than SK hynix last year; the gap narrowed to 12 this year. Elsewhere, KT (030200.KS) cut 17 executives, Samsung SDI (006400.KS) 16 and SK (034730.KS) 15.
Executive numbers rose at 52 of the 100 companies, about half the group. They fell at 38 and held steady at 10.
The number of employees per executive has hovered around 120 in recent years. The figure was 105.2 in 2011, rising to 124.5 in 2018 and 131.7 in 2021. It then fell to 119 in 2024 before registering 122.5 last year and 120.8 this year.
The share of executives among all employees slid to 0.80% in 2018 and 0.76% in 2021 from 0.95% in 2011. It recovered to 0.84% in 2024 and stood at 0.83% this year. That leaves the odds of holding an executive title at the top 100 companies below 1%. The figure is an arithmetic indicator of how large the executive ranks are relative to the total workforce, not the probability that any given employee will be promoted.
The ratio varied widely by industry. Securities firms had one executive for every 39.8 employees, the highest executive density among the sectors surveyed. Trading followed at 54.8 employees per executive, then petrochemicals at 63.8, insurance at 72.4, food at 93.1 and construction at 97.2.
Retail, by contrast, had 320.3 employees per executive, a gap attributed to the large numbers of staff working in stores and on sales floors. Executive density was also relatively low in energy at 179.7 employees per executive, shipbuilding and heavy industry at 170.3, autos at 150.5, transport at 139.7, electrical and electronics at 133.5, metals and steel at 116.3, and information and communications at 105.1.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) had the most unregistered executives of any single company, at 1,108 as of its half-year report this year, one more than a year earlier. Its employees per executive rose to 97.4 in 2018 from 80.7 in 2014, then topped 100 for the first time at 100.1 in 2019. The figure has continued to climb, from 106.2 in 2021 to 116.6 this year.
"Both Samsung Electronics and SK hynix saw sharply improved earnings this year, but SK hynix expanded its executive ranks in step with that improvement and its business expansion, while Samsung Electronics placed more weight on maintaining its existing executive numbers," said Oh Il-sun, head of Korea CXO Institute. "SK hynix is pursuing a growth strategy centered on semiconductors such as high-bandwidth memory, while Samsung Electronics runs a wider range of businesses including smartphones and home appliances, and that likely played a part."