Happiness Among Employees: SK Hynix in Top 3%, but What About Samsung Electronics?

Blind Index 2026 Released

Job Happiness Declines While Job-Switching Attempts Fall

While overall happiness among South Korean employees has declined, job-switching activity has decreased as well. The happiness gap between companies has also become apparent even within the same industry.

The employee social platform Blind announced the results of its annual employee happiness survey, the "Blind Index," on August 12, 2026. The Blind Index is an assessment by employees of their own happiness at work during the year. It measures 15 indicators across the areas of work, relationships, and culture, developed jointly with the Korea Labor Institute. The latest survey was conducted with 34,372 Korean workers who completed employment verification between July and December 2025.

The survey showed a marked decline in South Korean employees' happiness compared to the previous year. The number of companies with an increased score was only around 100, whereas over 370 companies saw a decline. The percentage of companies scoring 50 points or higher fell from 47% the previous year to 33% this year.

By company, Korea Gas Corporation ranked first with a score of 85. This was followed by SAP Korea and Korea South-East Power (each scoring 82), Google Korea (80), and Korea Housing Finance Corporation (79). As with last year, the top tier was largely occupied by public enterprises and foreign companies.

By job category, professionals such as lawyers (54 points), medical professionals (51 points), and doctors (50 points) maintained the highest rankings this year as well, while hardware engineers responsible for semiconductor and circuit design (49 points) entered the top ranks for the first time. In contrast, the index for medical professionals fell unusually sharply, dropping by more than 10% compared to the previous year. The occupations with the lowest index scores remained consistent: planners (36 points), military personnel (37 points), and customer service (40 points).

The ranking of employee happiness also varied among peer companies in major industries such as platforms, telecommunications, and semiconductors. In the semiconductor sector, SK hynix ranked in the top 3%, while Samsung Electronics was only in the top 60%. Among platform companies, Naver remained in the top 2%, whereas Kakao dropped sharply from the top 46% last year to 93% this year.

The most notable change in this year's survey was a decrease in job-switching attempts. Typically, a drop in happiness leads to more employees looking to change jobs, but this year, the proportion of employees who tried changing jobs within a year actually declined compared to the previous year, despite reduced happiness. This trend appeared broadly rather than in specific industries or job categories. Jae-Yong Shin, professor at Seoul National University Business School, explained, "The decrease in job-switching is not due to job satisfaction but rather a result of employees taking a wait-and-see approach in a subdued labor market."

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