Domestic firms plan to hire over 300-thousand new workers in the second and third quarters this year, slightly up year-on-year.

According to a survey by the Ministry of Employment and Labor released Monday, business entities with five or more regular employees are planning a combined 314-thousand new hires between April and September, up two-point-one percent from the same period last year.

The figure on planned recruitment for the second and third quarters has been around the 310-thousand level since 2016.

However, the number of new recruits sought by domestic firms and the number of people who were actually hired during the first quarter both edged down from the same January to March period of last year.