Average Summer Vacation 3.8 Days for Companies... Longer Breaks for Firms with 300 or More Employees

Korea Employers Federation Survey on Summer Vacation and Economic Outlook
88.6% of Responding Companies to Implement Summer Vacation
Half of Respondents Say "Second Half Economic Outlook Similar to First Half"

The average number of vacation days for companies that operate a summer vacation period was revealed to be 12 days. Larger companies were found to provide longer vacations than smaller ones.

Survey on "2026 Summer Vacation Conditions and Economic Outlook" for 674 Companies with 5 or More Employees Nationwide. Korea Employers Federation

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 674 companies nationwide with five or more employees, titled "2026 Summer Vacation Status and Economic Outlook," 88.6% of responding companies answered that they would implement a summer vacation this year. The remaining 11.4% said they would use annual leave throughout the year without a designated period.

The average number of vacation days for companies implementing summer vacations this year was calculated at 3.8 days. By company size, among companies with 300 or more employees, 65.5% answered "five days or more," while among those with fewer than 300 employees, the most common response was "three days," at 48.5%.

Among companies with 300 or more employees, 20.0% answered "three days," while among those with fewer than 300 employees, 32.4% answered "five days or more."

Regarding the period during which summer vacations are implemented, by industry, 69.7% of manufacturing companies responded that they "concentrate vacations in a short period (about one week)," while 64.6% of non-manufacturing companies answered that they "offer vacations over a relatively extended period (one to two months)." Companies that conduct summer vacation over a short period tend to concentrate their vacations at the end of July and early August.

Among companies that conduct summer vacation for a "short period (about one week)" or "in shifts over two weeks" (67.8%), most reported holding vacations in early August (67.5%), followed by late July (23.8%).

Survey on 2026 Summer Vacation Conditions and Economic Outlook for 674 Companies with 5 or More Employees Nationwide. Korea Employers Federation

Among companies implementing summer vacation, 53.0% responded that they plan to provide summer vacation allowances this year. This figure is down 1.0 percentage point (p) from last year (54.0%). By company size, 61.0% of companies with 300 or more employees plan to provide summer vacation allowances, which is 8.9 percentage points higher than the 52.1% of those with fewer than 300 employees.

The proportion of companies planning to implement a system to encourage the use of annual leave this year is 62.0%, up 2.2 percentage points from last year (59.8%).

In a survey on expectations for economic conditions in the second half of the year compared to the first half, the most common response was that the second half would be "at a similar level as the first half" at 50.2%.

The proportion of respondents who expect conditions to "deteriorate" decreased by 9.7 percentage points to 37.1% compared to the 2025 survey (46.8%), but those expecting "improvement" also fell by 2.9 percentage points to 12.7% compared to the 2025 survey (15.6%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.