New recruitment by companies in Korea will likely decline over 4 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, boding ill for jobseekers already having tough time landing work, a survey showed Tuesday.

In the survey conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 336 companies with 100 workers or more, their planned recruitment for this year shrank 4.4 percent from last year. 

By sector, manufacturers' employment will likely decline 4.6 percent on-year, while non-manufacturing companies plan to recruit 3.9 percent fewer than last year, the survey showed.

Of those polled, 56.2 percent answered they had plans to hire additional workers this year, with the rest saying they either have not yet decided or have no plans to hire more.

"Worsening earnings caused by the economic slowdown and uncertainty at home and abroad are deepening anxiety, making it hard for companies to expand employment," the business lobby said.

A similar poll earlier done by the Federation of Korean Industries, another major business lobby, showed that employment planned by the country's top 30 conglomerates is expected to shrink about 4.2 percent from 2015.

Those surveys underline the challenge for many jobseekers here.

Government data showed that the country's jobless rate stood at 4.3 percent in March, though it fell from the previous month's 4.9 percent. The jobless rate for younger people under 30 was much higher at 11.8 percent last month. (Yonhap)