K-Pop Corner: Agencies with highest turnover revealed

Data for 2018’s Financial Supervisory Service and National Pension in Korea revealed the employee turnover rate of the country’s top four entertainment agencies — SM, JYP, YG and Big Hit Entertainment — which are recognised as dominant players in K-Pop’s growth locally and internationally.

Dubbed as one of the industry’s “Big 3” labels, YG Entertainment received the highest number of employee resignations. The South Korean music company, home to prominent acts such as Big Bang, iKON, BlackPink and Winner had a total of 138 employees resign out of around 360 in 2018, totalling to a 38 per cent resignation rate.

SM Entertainment, which employs the most workers out of the four agencies, received the second highest resignation rate. Out of recruiting 431 employees, the Seoul-based conglomerate music label had 126 employee resignations. This means that they had a 29 per cent resignation rate.

Founded by Korean musician Park Jin-young in 1997, JYP Entertainment, the company that saw major success with some of its artists, in particular K-Pop girl group Twice and boy band GOT7, had the third highest resignation rate. The company that has the third lowest staff out of the four agencies — with a total of 215 workers — saw 38 employees resign last year.

The entertainment label behind global rise of K-Pop sensations BTS and new boy group TXT had the lowest numbers among the other Korean music labels. Despite having a small team of 138 workers, Big Hit Entertainment had 24 employees resign — a staff turnover rate of 17 per cent.