Korea's top 10 conglomerates added more than 35,300 jobs in the third quarter from a year earlier, data showed Friday, despite an economic slump that has slowed down overall job creation in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
The payroll number for the conglomerates' affiliates came in at 631,490 in the three months ended Sept. 30, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, said CEOScore, a Web site that tracks the conglomerates known as chaebol as well as financial firms and state-run companies.
The Web site cited an analysis of regulatory filings by 93 listed firms of the conglomerates.
Samsung Group, Korea's largest conglomerate, has added the largest number of jobs in the cited period. Samsung employs 205,269 people as of September, from 186,648 people during the same period in 2011, CEOScore said.
Samsung is followed by Hanwha Group whose total employment increased 9.1 percent on-year to 19,848 in the third quarter.
Employment of South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. stood at 121,734 in the quarter, up 6.8 percent from the same period in 2011, the Web site said.
South Korea's jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent in November, unchanged from the previous month. The number of jobs added to the economy, however, declined, according to Statistics Korea.
About 353,000 jobs were created last month compared with a year earlier, down from 396,000 jobs registered in October, the statistics office said. It was the smallest figure since last September when it slowed to 264,000. (Yonhap)