Hyundai Motor recruiting new technical employees for the first time in a decade

Hyundai Motor is reportedly planning to hire new technical workers, and the recruitment will take place in the span of two years starting this year. In total, the South Korean automaker is looking to add a total of 700 new technical employees.

Officials in the industry said that this would be the first time in 10 years that Hyundai Motor is hiring tech staff again. The hiring comes after the labor and management of the company agreed to expand its new recruitment for technical roles at its production plants in the country as thousands of veteran employees are retiring each year. The decision was made during negotiations for this year's wage.

According to The Korea Times, Hyundai Motor’s labor and management body consented to the hiring of 400 tech staff this year and an additional 300 in 2024. They agreed as this would help make the company's competitiveness in the auto business better. Moreover, this will also improve job security for employees.

It was decided that the recruitment is to be carried out through an open recruitment method. The company said it would implement a detailed process for hiring and would be in line with its own recruitment regulations.

It was noted that since April 2013, Hyundai Motor has not hired any rookies for technical roles. Before the recruitment stopped in the mentioned year, it has already hired 9,500 full-time in-house subcontracted workers.

The Seoul headquartered automobile manufacturer is expected to start the first round of hiring within the first half of this year. This is a very welcome move for the firm’s union as it has been asking for new employees since more than 2,000 baby boomers that comprise most of the union members, are retiring every year.

The union said that this year, around 2,200 Hyundai Motor workers and 700 Kia employees are set to leave. This is a big number that will greatly reduce the number of production staff.

Finally, it was reported that the global auto industry has been hanging back on large-scale job recruitments for technical workers, as most of them are already transitioning to the production of electric cars. They may not require a large number of technicians since EVs have 30% fewer parts compared to combustion engine vehicles, and this explains the car manufacturers’ hesitation in hiring more personnel.

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