The proportion of corporate executives among employees at South Korea's top 100 companies has hovered around 0.8% for five consecutive years. Among these firms, SK Hynix recorded the largest increase in the number of executives over the past year.

On October 19, the Korea CXO Institute, a corporate analysis firm, released the results of its "2026 Analysis of Executive Promotion Odds for Employees at the Top 100 Companies," which included these findings.

The survey targeted the top 100 listed companies by revenue based on their separate financial statements for 2025, comparing the number of employees and unregistered executives disclosed in corporate half-year reports. Executives were limited to unregistered executives (excluding registered board members), and the total employee count included these unregistered executives.

This year, the total number of employees across the top 100 companies stood at 862,163, an increase of 1,087 (0.1%) from 861,076 last year. Over the same period, the number of executives rose from 7,028 to 7,137, an increase of 109 (1.6%). As a result, the ratio of executives to total employees rose slightly from 0.82% last year to 0.83% this year.

After dropping from 0.95% in 2011 to a low of 0.76% in 2021, the executive ratio climbed back to 0.82% in 2022 and has remained in the 0.8% range for five straight years, recording 0.83% in 2023, 0.84% in 2024, 0.82% in 2025, and now 0.83% this year.

By company, SK Hynix showed the most significant growth in executive headcount. The number of executives at SK Hynix surged by 72 (35.5%) in a single year, jumping from 203 last year to 275 this year. It was followed by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which added 23 executives (from 109 to 132), Korean Air with an increase of 12 (from 72 to 84), and Mirae Asset Securities with 11 (from 129 to 140).

Conversely, Hyundai Motor saw its executive count drop by 25, from 476 last year to 451 this year, while LG Electronics experienced a decrease of 19, falling from 306 to 287. Among the top 100 companies, 52 saw an increase in executive numbers, 38 saw a decrease, and 10 remained unchanged from the previous year.

Among individual companies, Samsung Electronics maintained the highest number of unregistered executives. According to this year's half-year report, Samsung Electronics had 1,108 unregistered executives, an increase of just one from last year.

"While SK Hynix expanded its executive organization, Samsung Electronics placed greater weight on maintaining its existing executive scale," said Il-sun Oh, head of the Korea CXO Institute. "Differences in business structures and growth strategies—with SK Hynix focusing heavily on semiconductors while Samsung operates multiple diverse businesses simultaneously—likely influenced these trends."

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