Samsung has reportedly paused hiring new employees at its System LSI and Foundry divisions for the first half of this year. The reason behind this decision could be ongoing financial struggles in the company’s semiconductor business. The Korean firm recently started auditing its System LSI division because of its poor performance despite large-scale investment.
Samsung pauses hiring at multiple semiconductor business units
According to the Korean outlet Hani, Samsung’s Device Solutions (DS) division, which handles its semiconductor and device solutions businesses, posted a few job openings on March 10. They will hire new employees in five key business areas, including the Memory division and Semiconductor Research Center. What’s surprising here is that the hiring plan excludes both the System LSI and Foundry divisions.
In case you do not know, the System LSI Division is liable for designing logic chips, including processors like Exynos — in short, Samsung’s “fabless” design arm. On the other hand, the Foundry Division manufactures semiconductor chips designed by System LSI and other companies — in short, Samsung’s chip manufacturing arm.
Samsung consistently recruited for these divisions in previous years. The Korean firm even hired new employees for these divisions during the “semiconductor cold season” of 2023. In the first half of 2024, Samsung posted new vacancies for the System LSI division’s circuit design and software development roles. Meanwhile, the Foundry division posted jobs for five positions, including circuit design and sales and marketing.
A Samsung official said, “Although the two business divisions were excluded from the first half of the year’s new employee recruitment, we are flexibly adjusting the options by considering various options such as career recruitment and second half new employee recruitment.” This suggests that while new openings are currently on hold, Samsung may still hire skilled professionals and resume new hiring in the second half of the year, depending on the market condition.
The Korean report further states that the System LSI and Foundry divisions recorded operating losses of 4 to 6 trillion won (approx. $4 billion) in 2024. Several analysts predict that the deficit might persist in 2025 too.
