Average Summer Vacation of 3.7 Days This Year.. Most Expect Economic Downturn in Second Half

[Financial News] The average vacation days for companies taking summer vacations this year is found to be 3.7 days. More than half of the companies planning summer vacations responded that they plan to pay vacation allowances this year, but this is a slight decrease compared to last year. Additionally, 46% or more responded that the economy in the second half of this year will worsen compared to the first half, which was the highest response.
On the 13th, the Korean Employers Federation surveyed 528 companies nationwide with 5 or more employees on the '2025 Summer Vacation Status and Economic Outlook Survey', which showed that 42.5% of all companies planning summer vacations responded with '3 days', '5 days or more' was 32.6%, '4 days' was 12.0%, and '2 days or less' was 12.8%.
By company size, 64.7% of companies with 300 or more employees responded that this year's summer vacation days are '5 days or more', while 45.8% of companies with less than 300 employees responded with '3 days', which was the highest. For companies with 300 or more employees, 15.7% responded with '3 days', and for those with less than 300 employees, only 28.8% responded with '5 days or more'.
According to the survey on the period of summer vacation, 77.3% of manufacturing industries showed the highest response for 'short-term (about 1 week) intensive vacation'. Non-manufacturing industries showed the highest response for 'relatively wide period (1-2 months) vacation' at 73.6%.
Companies conducting short-term summer vacations are found to concentrate their vacations at the end of July and early August.
By scale, the proportion of companies paying summer vacation allowances this year is 10.6% higher for companies with 300 or more employees (63.3%) than for those with less than 300 employees (52.7%).
53.9% of companies planning summer vacations responded that they plan to pay summer vacation allowances this year, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points from last year's 56.5%.
Meanwhile, in a survey on how the economy in the second half of this year is expected to compare to the first half, 46.8% responded that the economy will 'worsen compared to the first half', similar to last year's result (45.0%).
The response that it will 'worsen' increased by 1.8 percentage points compared to the 2024 survey, but the response that it will 'improve' also increased by 3.9 percentage points compared to last year.
For companies with 300 or more employees, 53.3% responded that the economy in the second half of this year is expected to be 'similar to the first half', while 48.0% of companies with less than 300 employees responded that the economy in the second half will 'worsen compared to the first half'. 


hjkim01@fnnews.com Hakjae Kim Reporter