From semiconductors to electric car batteries, why is South Korea losing talent?

South Korea's brain drain is reportedly becoming increasingly evident in industries ranging from semiconductors to electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) recently announced that among 63 countries, South Korea ranked 43rd in the Brain Drain Index last year with a score of 4.00. In 2015, South Korea ranked 44th with a score of 3.98, 46th with a score of 3.94 in 2016, and 54th with a score of 3.57 in 2017. Similarly, South Korea ranked 33rd in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index last year with a score of 62.32. It is particularly worth mentioning that in terms of job attractiveness and employee motivation, South Korea ranked 41st and 61st respectively.

As South Korea's human resource management system is poorly functioning and the industrial model is rapidly changing, more and more South Koreans are choosing to work for foreign companies in many industries such as semiconductors, automobiles, chemicals, information and communications technology, and shipbuilding.

For example, an electric vehicle battery management system engineer jumped from LG Chemical to Volvo last year, and companies such as Tata Consultancy Services and German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies are scouting for Korean electric vehicle battery engineers.

Some even say that Koreans make up half of the R&D team at China's leading electric vehicle battery manufacturer. A few years ago, a Korean chemical company found that every member of its five-person R&D team found a new job overseas within a year. LG Chem claims that SK Innovation has poached 76 engineers from it over the years, and about 25 of them are said to have left SK Innovation to work for Chinese companies.

In the semiconductor industry, Chinese company Yangtze Memory Technologies has extended job offers to engineers from Micron Technology, SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, and others. It is estimated that more than 1,300 semiconductor engineers left South Korea for Chinese companies in 2017 alone. Chinese and Japanese automakers are also attracting South Korean semiconductor engineers to develop self-driving cars, among other things.

South Korea's nuclear power industry is collapsing due to a brain drain after the government announced a phase-out of nuclear energy. In the past two years, more than 260 people have left Korea Hydro & Power, Korea Electric Power and Korea Nuclear Power Plant Services & Engineering, and more than 80 nuclear engineers have left Doosan Heavy Industries to work in the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.