▲AI PRISM* Customized Economic Briefing
*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "artificial intelligence (AI)-based customized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Analyst Exodus Accelerates: The number of domestic analysts, which stood at 1,575 in 2010, has recently fallen to around 1,000, while the number of published reports surged 50% in two years — a situation in which workforce reduction and workload overload are proceeding simultaneously. The share of "No Rating (N/R)" reports more than doubled from 5.7% in 2022 to 13.3% this year, raising growing concerns about a weakening of the capital market's monitoring function.
■ Shift in Retirement Pension Management Landscape: Defined contribution (DC) and individual retirement pension (IRP) reserves surged by nearly 62 trillion won in the first half alone, while defined benefit (DB) reserves declined for the first time on a half-year basis. As the culture of directly managing one's own assets — rather than entrusting retirement assets to the company — spreads, even new office workers must exercise caution in choosing their retirement pension type from the early days of employment.
■ Semiconductor Entry-Level Hiring Doors Swing Open: In the first half of this year, entry-level hiring postings in the semiconductor sector surged 47% year-on-year, marking the highest level in the past five years. With SK hynix (000660) abolishing education requirements and Samsung Electronics (005930) expanding its workforce across 82 job categories, competition for entry-level hiring among domestic and foreign semiconductor companies is intensifying.
[News of Interest to New Office Workers]
1. The Capital Market's Compass… Analysts Are Leaving
Key Summary: The number of analysts, which stood at 1,575 in 2010, has recently fallen to around 1,000, and as brokerages minimize additional research hiring, the annual number of reports written per person has risen from 15 to more than 20. As research centers are classified as "cost centers" that generate no revenue, their standing has weakened, and salaries have fallen below those of retail and IB divisions — cited as structural factors driving the exodus. While pressure is applied simultaneously from both companies and individual investors over negative reports, there are effectively no institutional safeguards to protect individuals. The industry consensus is that new office workers considering employment at brokerages need to face the reality that preference for research centers has dropped significantly compared to the past.
2. DC·IRP Grow by 62 Trillion Won in Six Months… DB Type Posts First Decline
Key Summary: In the first half of this year, total domestic retirement pension reserves stood at 553.9 trillion won, up 57.1 trillion won from the end of last year, with DC and IRP combined surging by nearly 62 trillion won to lead the growth. DB reserves declined by 4.7 trillion won for the first time on a half-year basis, shrinking their overall share from 46.1% to 40.5%, and forecasts suggest that if this trend continues, the 40% line could be breached within this year. While the long-term return on DB plans is only around 2% per year, DC and IRP can invest up to 70% of the total amount in equity-type assets, drawing attention to the return gap. Advice suggests that new office workers choosing their retirement pension type early in their employment should grasp the structural differences between DB and DC·IRP before making a judgment from a long-term return perspective.
3. Semiconductor Hiring 'Jackpot' Too… First-Half Postings Jump 47%
Key Summary: Buoyed by surging demand for AI infrastructure, entry-level hiring postings in the semiconductor sector jumped 47% year-on-year in the first half of this year, with the entry-level share of all hiring postings reaching 12.2%, the highest in the past five years. SK hynix abolished education requirements, and Samsung Electronics launched a large-scale workforce expansion across 82 job categories including HBM, advanced packaging, and leading-edge foundry. Search volume for SK hynix job postings surged 180% year-on-year on JobKorea, while Nvidia and Micron have already raised their domestic job postings to more than 1.5 times last year's total level. Analysts say the semiconductor industry's super-boom cycle is leading beyond the practice of favoring experienced hires toward widening the doors for entry-level hiring.
[Reference News for New Office Workers]
4. Frequent Protest Calls, Ostracized for Sell Ratings… The Age of Analyst Suffering
Key Summary: The day of Seo Sang-young, managing director at Mirae Asset Securities, consists of an extreme routine that begins at midnight, with a 1:30 a.m. commute followed by a 5:30 a.m. market briefing. Analysts who issue negative reports face companies' "ostracizing" responses such as exclusion from investor relations events and restricted site visits, while also enduring protest calls and collective SNS attacks from individual investors. The more than doubling of the share of "No Rating (N/R)" reports, from 5.7% in 2022 to 13.3% this year, is assessed as a direct result of such pressure. With workload increasing while compensation remains stagnant, cases of top talent moving to asset management firms, private equity funds, and venture capital, or converting to full-time investing, are following one after another.
Key Summary: Samsung Electro-Mechanics has drawn up a plan to build an A2A (agent-to-agent) system linking its own AI agent with SAP's AI "Joule" to automate repetitive tasks such as expense processing, business trip settlements, and raw material transactions. A2A is a concept in which AI agents from different platforms communicate via a common communication standard and share tasks; it gained momentum when Google unveiled an open protocol in April last year. As a McKinsey survey found that of 109 companies that adopted AI, 84% cited efficiency improvements and 82% cited revenue growth as expected effects, forecasts suggest A2A adoption is likely to spread across companies broadly. From the perspective of new office workers, an era in which AI agents replace simple repetitive tasks such as expense processing and document transmission is becoming a reality, and observers point out the need to prepare by building capabilities in decision-making support and data interpretation.
6. The 'Protocol Farce' That Unfolded at the National Pension Service CIO Interview
Key Summary: At the fund management head (CIO) interview held on the 20th at the National Pension Service's Seoul Southern Regional Headquarters, a scene of an umbrella being opened indoors to conceal candidates' faces was captured, sparking controversy over the transparency of the recruitment process. Five former CIOs — Park Cheon-seok, Kim Ho-jin, Lee Kyu-hong, Han Jong-seok, and Lee Do-yoon — participated in the interview, and the personnel recommendation committee plans to narrow the shortlist to three or four candidates soon. As the authority of a CIO managing more than 500 trillion won in funds has become weighty, criticism has been raised that the public's right to know about candidates' capabilities is not being met. The transparency of recruitment at public institutions is also a concern for office workers in general, and for financial sector workers aiming for the fund management head position, it is assessed as a matter requiring an understanding of the selection structure.
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