With the continuous growth in their order backlogs, South Korea’s three major shipbuilding companies have been increasing their annual recruitment numbers in recent years, reaching nearly 4,000 new hires for the full year of 2024.
According to South Korean media statistics, in 2024, which marked an entry into an industry boom period, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (including HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, and HD Hyundai Samho), Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries collectively recruited 3,921 new employees. This figure represents a 29.4% increase compared to the 3,029 recruited in 2023, and more than double the 1,789 recruited in 2022.
Among the South Korean shipbuilders, Hanwha Ocean recruited the most employees in 2024, reaching 2,122; Samsung Heavy Industries followed with 1,037 new hires; HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (including its 3 subsidiaries) ranked last, recruiting 762 employees.
If employees who had previously worked at these three shipbuilders and returned (boomerang employees) are excluded, considering only the scale of entirely new hires, the numbers were 850 in 2022, 997 in 2023, and increased to 1,330 in 2024. Among these, Hanwha Ocean still led in recruiting entirely new employees, with 615 people; HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and its 3 subsidiaries recruited about 500, ranking second; Samsung Heavy Industries recruited 215, placing third.
This shows that among the nearly 4,000 new employees recruited by the three major South Korean shipbuilders in 2024, “boomerang employees” (referring to employees who left and then returned to their original company) accounted for a high proportion of 66%. Industry analysts in South Korea believe that the growth momentum in recruitment at the three major shipbuilders reflects the industry’s recent trend of emerging from a stagnation period and entering a boom cycle. Furthermore, in 2024, these three shipbuilders achieved annual profitability simultaneously for the first time since 2011, a gap of 13 years. Entering 2025, they have maintained a relatively fast growth momentum. The favorable development prospects and salary packages are attracting an increasing number of new and former employees to join.
According to the performance reports of the three major South Korean shipbuilders, in 2024, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering achieved operating revenue of 25,538.6 billion KRW (approximately 134 billion RMB), a year-on-year increase of 19.9%; it achieved an operating profit of 1,434.1 billion KRW (approximately 7.52 billion RMB), a surge of 408% year-on-year, setting the highest operating profit record since HD KSOE’s establishment in 2019. In the first half of this year, the company’s cumulative operating revenue reached 14,200.1 billion KRW (approximately 72.8 billion RMB); its operating profit was 1,812.8 billion KRW (approximately 9.3 billion RMB), exceeding the full-year 2023 figure by 26.4%.
Samsung Heavy Industries achieved operating revenue of 9,903.1 billion KRW (approximately 51.9 billion RMB) in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%; its operating profit was 502.7 billion KRW (approximately 2.636 billion RMB), a significant increase of 115.5% year-on-year. This marks the second consecutive year of annual profitability for Samsung Heavy Industries since 2023. In the first half of this year, the company’s cumulative operating revenue was 5,177.3 billion KRW (approximately 26.32 billion RMB), a year-on-year increase of 6.1%; its operating profit was 327.9 billion KRW (approximately 1.67 billion RMB), an increase of 57.2% year-on-year.
Hanwha Ocean achieved operating revenue of 10,776 billion KRW (approximately 56.5 billion RMB) in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 45.5%; it achieved an operating profit of 237.9 billion KRW (approximately 1.25 billion RMB), turning a profit compared to the loss in the previous year. This is the first time Hanwha Ocean has achieved annual profitability since 2021. In the first half of this year, Hanwha Ocean’s cumulative operating revenue was 6,437.2 billion KRW (approximately 33.3 billion RMB), and its operating profit was 630.3 billion KRW (approximately 3.26 billion RMB), reaching about 2.6 times the full-year 2024 operating profit.
South Korean industry insiders stated that although global new ship orders declined significantly in the first half of 2025 and the order intake performance of the three major South Korean shipbuilders also slowed down, as of the end of September this year, the South Korean shipbuilding industry’s order backlog still stood at 33.81 million Compensated Gross Tons (CGT), with an order coverage ratio of about 3.2 years. Therefore, South Korean shipbuilders are expected to maintain a good recruitment momentum this year. It is reported that Hanwha Ocean initiated its recruitment process for new university graduate employees for the second half of 2025 in September this year, with a recruitment scale increased by over 200 people compared to 2024, reaching 800 people.
