South Korea's job market is likely to remain gloomy this year, with the number of firms who say they already have enough employees at its highest in five years, a poll showed Sunday.

According to the Bank of Korea survey of some 2,800 local companies, the employment business survey index at the beginning of the year stood at 94, the highest since late 2009.

The employment BSI gauges whether or not the companies feel they need new recruits. A higher figure indicates that more firms view their current number of employees as sufficient.

The local employment BSI had largely been trending downward for five years since 2009 but began to climb from the past year.

In a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 180 of 500 largest firms by sales in South Korea said they will hire a combined 22,844 new workers this year, down 2.3 percent from the 23,385 a year earlier. Another 125 firms said they were still undecided, while the remaining 195 did not respond.

"The country's top 100 companies by sales are forecast to slightly cut down on hiring due to the changes in employment policies such as higher ordinary wages, shortened working hours and an extension in the retirement age," a KCCI official said. 

Accordingly, local households were pessimistic in their search for jobs, with the consumer sentiment index for the job market outlook coming to 86 last month, a separate BOK data showed.

Although the latest figure is higher than what was tallied in the previous month, a reading of below 100 still shows the pessimists outnumber optimists. 

"The country's jobs data had an adverse effect on the CSI, and as a result, there is limited expectations for growth in domestic demand as well," said Kim Doo-un, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities Co. (Yonhap)