1 in 2 Samsung Electronics semiconductor workers considering leaving — over 80% in foundry division

Eight out of 10 employees in Samsung Electronics' foundry (contract chip manufacturing) division are considering leaving the company, a new survey shows. About 7 in 10 workers in the System LSI division, which handles chip design, also said they intend to leave. By contrast, only 3 in 10 employees in the memory chip division — which receives roughly three times the performance bonuses of the other units — expressed the same intent, revealing a sharp divide across business divisions.

The Samsung Electronics branch of the cross-industry union, the largest labor union within the company, released Thursday the results of a survey on employees' intent to leave within two years, conducted among Device Solutions division workers (8,297 respondents) from June 17 to June 30.

Among foundry division respondents (1,462 people), 81.5% said they intended to leave — with about 62% rating their intent as "very high" and 19% as "high." That figure is roughly double the DS division-wide average of 49.5%.

The System LSI division also recorded a high rate of 75.4%, with 55% saying their intent was "very high" and 20% "high," underscoring strong turnover intent among non-memory workers. The memory chip division, by contrast, came in at 32.7%, below the overall average.

The high turnover intent in non-memory divisions stems largely from the differential performance bonuses paid by business unit. Under a labor-management agreement, assuming Samsung Electronics posts 300 trillion won ($202 billion) in operating profit this year, memory chip division employees — who drive DS division earnings — are expected to receive about 600 million won each, while non-memory division employees would receive about 200 million won, a gap of roughly threefold.

According to Samsung Electronics' 2026 Sustainability Report, the company's overall annual turnover rate has declined: 10.6% in 2023, 10.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2025. However, the domestic turnover rate edged up slightly, from 2.1% in 2024 to 2.5% last year.

The union held the first kickoff meeting of its DS Division Policy Committee on Thursday, sharing the survey findings and discussing the union's stance on the government's mega-project initiative as well as the schedule for the 2027 wage and collective bargaining negotiations.

"The turnover intent survey results reflect the sense of crisis on the ground as it is," union chairman Choe Seung-ho said. "The company must take this seriously and swiftly put in place effective measures to prevent talent from leaving."