Large firms’ profits jumped 81% while workforce barely grew

South Korea’s largest companies saw double-digit growth in revenue and operating profit over the past three years, while their combined workforce remained largely unchanged, an analysis showed Tuesday.

Corporate tracker Leaders Index analyzed 282 of the country’s 500 largest companies by revenue for which comparable business and employment data were available.

Their combined workforce increased just 0.2 percent, from 1,299,333 employees at the end of 2023 to 1,302,191 at the end of 2025.

Over th ...