South Korean battery manufacturers are beefing up efforts to hire researchers and engineers as labor shortage in the industry has become a big headache that hampers competition and growth.

According to a survey conducted last year by the Korea Battery Industry Association that was released Wednesday, the Korean battery industry faces a shortage of more than 4,000 workers with bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. The shortage rate is 14 percent, which is three times higher than 4.4 percent in the four new industry technology sectors - next-generation chips, next-generation displays, intelligent robots, and extended reality (XR).

Amid the labor shortage, Korea’s three major battery players LG Energy Solution Ltd., Samsung SDI Co., and SK on Co. are aggressively recruiting new employees.

According to their respective business reports, the combined number of workers at the three companies stood at 25,996 last year, up 16.1 percent from the previous year.

Samsung SDI recruited 620 new employees last year, LG Energy Solution 1,516 and SK on 1,469.

“Manpower is constantly needed as the secondary battery sector has shown an explosive growth,” said Cho Jae-phil, a professor at energy and chemical engineering at the Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). “Materials companies are unable to hire people even if they want to as there is a big labor gap between large and mid-sized and small and mid-sized companies.”

The battery trio has also begun to improve corporate welfare in areas other than wages, such as expanding in-house resting areas, to secure technical talent.

LG Energy Solution is building a welfare complex in its Ochang plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and is also creating a resting space named “Entral Park” in the second factory in Ochang.

In general, the highest floor of an office building that comes with the best view is assigned to the chief executive officer, but it is offered to employees in the case of the battery sector.

The headquarters of LG Energy Solution in Seoul, for example, uses the entire 63rd floor as a rest area for employees. The top floor of the headquarters of SK on in Jongno, central Seoul, which used to be a high-end restaurant, is also dedicated to a lounge and meeting space for employees known as “SK: Lab.”

By Jung You-jung and Choi Jieun

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