According to a recent poll conducted by Research & Research, it was found that nearly 60 percent of large companies in South Korea have not yet established a recruitment plan for the second half of the year or do not intend to hire at all. The survey, which targeted the country's top 500 companies by sales, revealed that 40 percent of the firms had not yet set up a recruitment plan, while 17.5 percent had no plans to hire new college graduates for the remainder of the year. On the other hand, 42.5 percent of the companies had established recruitment plans for the second half, indicating a 7.1 percentage-point increase from the previous year's survey for the same period. The reasons cited for not hiring included tightened management in response to economic uncertainty, prolonged economic downturn, and difficulty in securing talent. A federation official highlighted the conservative approach companies are expected to take in hiring due to concerns over economic slowdown and sluggish domestic demand. Additionally, the official stressed the importance of avoiding legislative discussions that increase uncertainty in corporate management and called for the relaxation of various corporate regulations.