Over the past four years, the number of temporary contract workers in South Korea’s shipbuilding industry has increased by more than five thousand. Industry analysts attribute this primarily to the industry finally entering a boom period after over a decade of downturn. However, the sudden surge in shipbuilding projects has led to a severe labor shortage, forcing major shipyards to bring in a large number of temporary contract workers to alleviate the “labor crunch.”
A recent survey by the South Korean corporate data research firm CEO Score, which compiled data from 334 companies among the top 500 by revenue in their mid-term reports from 2021 to 2025 on the number of regular employees (including those on open-ended contracts) and temporary contract workers, showed that the number of temporary contract workers at five major shipbuilders—HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Mipo, HD Hyundai Samho, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries—reached 6,508 by the end of June this year. This represents an increase of 5,736 workers compared to the 772 recorded at the end of June 2021.
In contrast, the number of regular employees (open-ended contract workers) decreased over the same period. At the end of June 2021, the five major shipyards had 37,091 regular employees, which fell to 37,015 by the end of June this year, a decrease of 71 workers.
Among the five major shipyards, HD Hyundai Mipo saw the most significant rise in the proportion of temporary contract workers. At the end of June 2021, temporary contract workers accounted for only 1.6% of its total workforce, but this figure rose to 22.5% by the end of June this year, an increase of 20.8 percentage points in just four years. Specifically, the number of temporary contract workers at HD Hyundai Mipo over the four years was: 49 at the end of June 2021, 64 at the end of June 2022, 130 at the end of June 2023, 802 at the end of June 2024, and 929 by the end of June 2025, an increase of 880 compared to four years ago.
The proportion of temporary contract workers at Samsung Heavy Industries also rose from 1.9% to 19.6%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points. Its number of temporary contract workers over the four years was: 185 at the end of June 2021, 142 at the end of June 2022, 832 at the end of June 2023, 1,447 at the end of June 2024, and 2,045 by the end of June 2025, an increase of 1,860 compared to four years ago.
Furthermore, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries saw its proportion of temporary contract workers increase by 12.9 percentage points; Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Samho increased by 8.1 and 5.6 percentage points, respectively. Specifically, the number of temporary contract workers at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries grew from 257 at the end of June 2021 to 2,154 at the end of June this year, an increase of 1,897 over four years. Hanwha Ocean increased from 170 to 1,052, adding 882 workers over four years; HD Hyundai Samho increased from 93 to 328, adding 235 workers over four years.
The reason for the sharp increase in temporary contract workers at South Korea’s major shipbuilders is that the long-term slump in the shipbuilding market previously led to a loss of many skilled workers. When a new wave of orders arrived, the labor supply could not recover in time, forcing shipyards to rely on short-term workers to cope with production pressure.
An industry representative stated: “Major shipbuilding companies must ensure the delivery of new ships within the contractually agreed timeframes. However, with the recent surge in orders, they have had to rely more on temporary contract workers to quickly supplement the labor force.”
He added: “Nevertheless, compared to the industry’s peak in the past, the overall scale of employment is still relatively low.”
Meanwhile, the three major giants of South Korea’s shipbuilding industry continued their “super boom” performance this year. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering reported an operating profit of 953.6 billion won (approximately $686 million, 4.926 billion yuan) in the second quarter, a surge of 153.3% year-on-year. Hanwha Ocean achieved an operating profit of 371.7 billion won (approximately $276 million, 1.92 billion yuan) in the same period, successfully turning a profit. Samsung Heavy Industries also recorded an operating profit of 204.8 billion won (approximately $150 million, 1.04 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 56.7%, breaking the 200 billion won quarterly profit mark for the first time in 11 years (the last time was in 2014).
