A tougher market does not automatically lower desired pay

It is easy to assume that salary expectations fall when hiring becomes harder. Candidates facing fewer openings and stronger competition are expected to lower pay demands, company-size preferences and role requirements together.

A September 1 survey released by Korean recruiting platform Jinhaksa CATCH showed a different combination. Among 900 respondents who planned to apply in the second half of 2026, the average desired annual salary was ₩44.7 million, up ₩1.7 million from a survey conducted earlier in the year.

The average salary respondents believed they could actually receive was ₩41.5 million. The ₩3.2 million gap suggests that the respondents did distinguish between the outcome they wanted and the one they considered realistic.

Candidates are already broadening the set of opportunities they will consider

Asked how they would adjust their second-half strategy, 29% said they would widen the size range of companies they target, 24% would broaden their target roles and 21% would lower their desired salary. Fifteen percent said they would widen industries, and another 15% would consider internships or contract roles.

That does not look like a group unaware of market conditions. It looks like candidates changing some constraints in order to expand the number of viable opportunities.

The distinction matters: expanding acceptable options is not the same as eliminating preferences.

Large-company and compensation preferences remain strong

When asked which company types they planned to apply to, 52% selected large companies, the highest share. Public institutions followed at 30%, mid-sized companies at 29%, SMEs at 13% and foreign companies at 11%.

Compensation was also the most selected factor when choosing an employer, at 42%. Work-life balance and work environment followed at 18%, while growth and career-development opportunities accounted for 12%.

The picture is therefore more nuanced than ‘expectations remain too high.’ Candidates are widening company and role ranges while continuing to value pay and large-company opportunities.

The more revealing number may be 37%: too few postings worth applying to

Among 858 respondents who had applied for jobs in the first half of the year, 37% said their biggest difficulty was that there were too few job postings worth applying to. High competing-candidate credentials and experience followed at 21%, limited hiring volume at 18% and demanding role requirements at 17%.

Among the 900 respondents planning to apply in the second half, 49% expected to apply to five postings or fewer. Another 23% expected six to ten applications.

In a difficult job market, candidates are not necessarily responding by applying everywhere. The relevant scarcity may be not only the number of postings, but the number of opportunities candidates judge worth spending their time and career capital on.

Administrative data also show an imbalance, but it is a different dataset

Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor reported 177,000 new vacancies and 399,000 new job seekers through the government-run Employment24 platform in July 2026. The vacancy-to-job-seeker ratio was 0.44, up from 0.40 a year earlier.

This should not be directly compared with the CATCH survey. Employment24 covers only vacancies and job seekers using that platform and has a particular industry mix. The ministry explicitly cautions that it does not represent the entire Korean labor market.

It can nonetheless serve as a separate signal that the market is not one in which job seekers have abundant openings across the board.

Employers should not stop at ‘salary expectations are high’

The ₩44.7 million figure can tempt employers into a simple conclusion: candidates expect too much. But the same survey found expected pay at ₩41.5 million and 21% of respondents planning to lower their desired salary.

Pay also carries information beyond cash. Candidates may read company stability, responsibility level, future pay growth, brand value, career portability, benefits and working conditions into the number.

The practical employer question is therefore not whether every offer should match a survey average. It is whether the company can explain why its total opportunity is worth choosing for the talent it wants to hire.

A posted vacancy is not automatically a vacancy worth applying to

Companies often say that they cannot attract enough applicants or that strong candidates drop out over compensation. But a lack of applications does not always mean a lack of people.

If responsibilities are broad, career development is unclear, requirements are long and the role does not explain what the candidate can gain, publishing a vacancy does not necessarily create a meaningful opportunity in the candidate's eyes.

When employers fail to explain the difference between otherwise similar opportunities, salary becomes one of the easiest signals for candidates to compare.

BANSEOG VIEW

Candidates are separating what they can compromise on from what they still want to protect

The most useful part of this survey is not the ₩44.7 million figure alone. Twenty-nine percent planned to widen company size, 24% to widen role scope and 21% to lower desired pay.

A difficult labor market does not make people discard every preference at once. Candidates can expand their acceptable range while retaining a view of the compensation and employer quality that make an opportunity attractive.

For employers, the better question may be not ‘Why do candidates want so much?’ but ‘Which parts of this offer are candidates willing to compromise on, and which parts are decisive?’

The ₩3.2 million gap between desired and expected pay is not only an expectation problem. It is a clue to how candidates are pricing trade-offs. In a selective market, one of the most expensive hiring failures may be a vacancy that gives good candidates no clear reason to apply.

SOURCES

Sources and methodology notes

The CATCH survey was conducted by QR code among 1,013 users from August 19–21, 2026. It is not a nationally representative labor-force survey. Desired pay, expected pay and application-count figures were reported for 900 respondents planning to apply in the second half. Employment24 figures are a separate administrative dataset and should not be treated as the same population.