How Many People Work At Samsung 2026: Headcount Trends & Insights

Samsung Electronics employed 262,647 people at the end of 2024, down from 267,860 at end-2023 and 270,278 at end-2022, per the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report. The three-year drop totals 7,631 people. Most of that contraction sits outside Korea.

The report’s Device eXperience (DX) and Device Solutions (DS) divisions absorbed the rebalance at different speeds, and Wikipedia’s corporate infobox confirms the same 262,647 figure, citing Samsung’s own filings. The headline “declining” framing obscures the Korea-up, world-down rebalancing underneath. The fuller Samsung financial profile carries the underlying revenue spine where productivity climbed sharply even as headcount fell.

Samsung reports total headcount once a year, in its Sustainability Report, so the end-2024 figure above is its most recent official count.

Key Takeaways

• Samsung Electronics reported 262,647 employees at the end of 2024, down from 267,860 at end-2023.
• Korean headcount rose to 125,297 at end-2024, up from 117,927 at end-2022, a gain of 7,370 people, while non-Korea regions lost a net 15,001 over the same window.
• Manufacturing employment fell to 105,571 at end-2024, down from 117,990 at end-2022, reflecting the production-floor contraction.
• Manager-level headcount grew to 96,294 at end-2024, up 9,796 from 86,498 at end-2022, even as working-level headcount fell 17,428.
• Samsung’s 240 sites span 76 countries, with 33 manufacturing plants, 40 R&D centers, and 2,503 suppliers in the parts network.
• Q1 2026 consolidated revenue reached KRW 133.9 trillion, an all-time quarterly high (a 43% quarter-on-quarter increase), with operating profit of KRW 57.2 trillion.
• The Device Solutions Division alone posted KRW 53.7 trillion in operating profit in Q1 2026, more than FY 2024’s company-wide total.

Editor’s Choice: How Many People Work at Samsung

• 262,647 employees is the official end-2024 Samsung Electronics headcount from the 2025 Sustainability Report.
• 125,297 employees sit in Korea, the largest national footprint and the only region adding staff across 2022-2024.
• 157,350 employees sit under the report’s “Global” line, up from 152,351 at end-2022 (a roughly 3.3% three-year gain).
• 240 worldwide sites include 15 regional HQs, 109 sales offices, 33 manufacturing plants, and 40 R&D centers.
• KRW 35.0 trillion in R&D spending in 2024, roughly $25.6 billion at end-2024 exchange rates.
• KRW 300.9 trillion FY 2024 annual revenue, the second-highest annual figure on Samsung’s record (surpassed only in 2022).
• Revenue per employee for FY 2024 was approximately KRW 1.146 billion (roughly $840,000 at end-2024 exchange rates), derived from the headline revenue divided by year-end headcount (full derivation below).

Recent Developments

• April 30, 2026: Samsung Electronics reported Q1 2026 results with consolidated revenue of KRW 133.9 trillion and operating profit of KRW 57.2 trillion, both all-time quarterly highs. The DS Division posted KRW 81.7 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 53.7 trillion in operating profit for the first quarter.
• Q1 2026: The Memory Business initiated industry-first mass product sales of HBM4 and SOCAMM2 for NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform, anchoring Samsung’s AI-memory position with its largest customer.
• June 27, 2025: Samsung Electronics released its 2025 Sustainability Report covering end-2024 data, with the DX Division recording a renewable energy transition rate of 93.4%.
• FY 2024: Samsung reported FY 2024 results of KRW 300.9 trillion annual revenue and KRW 32.7 trillion operating profit, with capital expenditure of KRW 53.6 trillion (KRW 46.3 trillion in DS alone).
• Q1 2025: Samsung Q1 2025 revenue hit KRW 79.14 trillion, an all-time quarterly high at the time, with R&D spending of KRW 9 trillion (up 16% year-over-year).
• 2024: Samsung invested 37.5 billion won in the Samsung SW AI Academy for Youth, training approximately 2,200 young software professionals.

Samsung Electronics Total Headcount

Samsung Electronics’ end-2024 workforce sat at 262,647 people, down from end-2023’s 267,860, per the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report. The split breaks into 125,297 in Korea and 157,350 under the report’s “Global” line.

• The Korean share of total headcount has risen from 43.6% at end-2022 to 47.7% at end-2024, a structural rebalancing that no single headline number captures.

The fixed-term share is small. Only 3,215 employees were on fixed-term contracts at end-2024, down from 3,665 at end-2022. That works out to roughly 1.2% of total headcount on fixed terms. Samsung’s workforce is overwhelmingly permanent, which matters when comparing the figure against contractor-heavy peers where Foxconn and other assemblers sit outside the headcount line entirely. The fuller Apple market and workforce data shows that pattern across Apple’s entire device manufacturing supply chain.

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Samsung Headcount Year-Over-Year

Samsung’s three-year headcount trajectory ran 270,278 in 2022, 267,860 in 2023, and 262,647 in 2024. The compound drop is roughly 2.8% over the two-year window from end-2022 to end-2024.

The drop accelerated in 2024 even as Samsung’s revenue and operating profit both grew, which is the productivity story underneath.

The peak figure in the search-engine record is 270,278, the 2022 year-end headcount from the same disclosure series. Readers still search for the 270,372 variant three years after Samsung passed it, and the gap to the current 262,647 is exactly the rebalancing the table above captures.

By the numbers: Samsung’s Korean workforce expanded from 117,927 to 125,297 between end-2022 and end-2024, a gain of 7,370 people. Over the same window, the Global (non-Korea) headcount went from 152,351 to 157,350. The Asia regional cell took most of the contraction.

Samsung Employees by Region and Country

Samsung Electronics spreads its workforce across six geographic blocks, with Korea by far the largest. Korea hosts 125,297 employees at end-2024, followed by 95,501 in Asia (the report’s Asia block excludes Korea). 11,500 sit in North America and Latin America combined, and 4,461 each in CIS and Middle East and Africa. Europe carries 788 employees in the end-2024 disclosure, down from the end-2022 figure of 17,566.

The Europe figure looks anomalously low against the 17,566 reported for 2022; the most likely explanation is a reporting-boundary change in how Samsung Electronics classifies European headcount after a regional restructuring.

How many US employees does Samsung have?

Samsung Electronics does not publish a US-specific headcount line in its consolidated Sustainability Report. The closest official figure groups 11,500 employees across North America and Latin America at end-2024, down from 17,109 at end-2022. Industry estimates from Samsung’s regional press materials put the US share of that figure at roughly two-thirds, implying about 7,500-8,000 US-based Samsung Electronics staff before subsidiaries.

Samsung Workforce by Job Type and Function

Manufacturing remains Samsung’s largest functional bucket, but it has shrunk. Manufacturing employed 105,571 people at end-2024, down from 117,990 at end-2022, a roughly 10.5% three-year contraction concentrated on the production floor.

• Development (engineering and product development) is among the largest functions at 88,984 people at end-2024, up from 80,423 at end-2022. Sales and marketing held near 23,466.

Development headcount grew roughly 10.6% across 2022-2024. Manufacturing fell roughly 10.5% over the same window. Others dropped from 28,199 to 25,895. The bucket covers corporate functions like HR, finance, legal, and IT.

The pattern fits a high-end-semiconductor pivot, with development scaling up to defend the AI memory franchise.

Samsung Headcount by Rank: Working, Manager, Executive

Samsung’s rank distribution shifted measurably across the same window. Working-level employees fell from 182,323 at end-2022 to 164,895 at end-2024, a 17,428-person drop. Manager-level employees rose from 86,498 to 96,294, a 9,796 gain. Executive-level headcount held nearly flat at 1,457 in 2022, 1,485 in 2023, and 1,458 in 2024.

Manager-level growth offset more than half the working-level loss. The pyramid is flattening; the ratio of working-level to manager-level employees moved from 2.11 in 2022 to 1.71 in 2024.

Worth noting: Samsung’s executive level counted exactly 1,458 people at end-2024 against a total workforce of 262,647. That puts executive density at roughly one per 180 employees, a steeper hierarchy than most US tech peers but typical for Korean chaebol structures.

Samsung Employees by Age and Gender

• Samsung’s workforce skews younger, but it is aging on the margin. Employees under 30 fell from 83,155 at end-2022 to 65,531 at end-2024. Employees in their 30s held nearly flat at 111,607 to 114,053, while employees aged 40 and above grew from 75,516 to 85,081.

Source: Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2025

On gender, Samsung Electronics reports women comprise 33.1% of the total workforce at end-2024, down from 35.1% at end-2022. The share by job type breaks down sharply. Manufacturing is 41.8% female; quality assurance is 38.8%; sales and marketing is 35.2%; development is 19.7%; Others sits at 37.0%.

Source: Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2025

Female representation at the executive level rose from 6.9% in 2022 to 7.4% in 2024, and at manager level from 16.9% to 18.2%. 1,999 people with disabilities worked at the company at end-2024, 1.9% of the workforce.

Samsung Hiring and Retirement Trends

• Samsung’s annual retirement rate has trended down. Total retirement rate fell from 12.9% in 2022 to 10.6% in 2023, then to 10.1% in 2024. Men’s retirement rate was 6.3% in 2024 against women’s 3.8%.

Source: Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2025

Is it hard to get hired at Samsung?

Samsung does not publish a global acceptance rate. What the company does disclose is that new female hires reached 30.0% globally in 2024, a year-over-year high. Industry estimates put Samsung’s overall acceptance rate in the low single digits.

Samsung Revenue Per Employee

• Samsung’s FY 2024 revenue per employee crossed a watershed mark. FY 2024 consolidated revenue reached KRW 300.9 trillion against a year-end workforce of 262,647. The implied ratio is roughly KRW 1.146 billion per employee, about $840,000 at end-2024 exchange rates.

Source: Samsung Electronics 2025 Sustainability Report and Q4 2024 results press release

Is Samsung bigger than Apple?

By employees, Samsung Electronics is larger than Apple. Samsung Electronics’ end-2024 headcount of 262,647 sits above Apple’s recently disclosed headcount of roughly 164,000. By revenue, Apple’s FY 2024 figure of about $391 billion runs ahead of Samsung’s $220 billion equivalent. Apple stays asset-light on assembly. See the Microsoft workforce breakdown for a software-services peer.

Samsung’s Global Footprint: 240 Sites Across 76 Countries

Samsung Electronics operates 240 worldwide locations across 76 countries at end-2024. The breakdown weights toward sales and R&D. The footprint includes 15 regional headquarters, 109 sales offices, 33 manufacturing sites, 6 purchase centers, 40 R&D centers, 7 design centers, and 30 Others.

Samsung’s supplier network counts 2,503 suppliers feeding the manufacturing footprint. The 33 manufacturing sites concentrate in Korea, Vietnam, China, India, and Texas.

Compare the layout against NVIDIA’s published employee profile for an asset-light counterpoint, where the headcount-to-revenue ratio runs roughly an order of magnitude tighter than Samsung’s. Tesla’s workforce footprint offers another manufacturing-heavy comparison where the headcount sits well below Samsung’s despite a similar capital-intensive production base.

The takeaway: A footprint of 240 sites and 2,503 suppliers spanning 76 countries is what makes the 262,647-employee figure look smaller than it actually is in supply-chain reach. The directly employed headcount is one part of a much wider Samsung operating envelope.

Samsung DX vs DS Division Workforce Productivity

Samsung Electronics breaks its consolidated business into two divisions: Device eXperience (DX) covers consumer products and Device Solutions (DS) covers semiconductors. In 2024, the DX Division posted KRW 174.8877 trillion in sales and KRW 12.4399 trillion in operating profit, while the DS Division posted KRW 111.066 trillion in sales and KRW 15.0945 trillion in operating profit.

Source: Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2025 (excludes Harman and Samsung Display Co. performances)

The Q1 2026 picture diverged sharply from the FY 2024 baseline. The DS Division posted KRW 81.7 trillion in revenue and KRW 53.7 trillion in operating profit in Q1 2026 alone. That figure exceeds the entire company’s full-year operating profit in FY 2024. The Memory Business specifically initiated industry-first mass product sales of HBM4 and SOCAMM2 for NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform in the same quarter.

Source: Samsung Electronics 2025 Sustainability Report and Q1 2026 results press release

The DS Division’s Q1 2026 operating profit exceeded the entire company’s FY 2024 operating profit, and the headcount line did not need to grow to capture it.

Key finding: Samsung Electronics Q1 2026 operating profit reached KRW 57.2 trillion, an all-time quarterly high, with the DS Division accounting for KRW 53.7 trillion of it. The mix is more concentrated than any prior quarter on Samsung’s record.

Is Samsung CEO a billionaire?

Lee Jae-yong is the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics and the only son of Lee Kun-hee. Forbes estimated his net worth at $11.5 billion as of 2024, comfortably ranking him as a billionaire. The current CEO of Samsung Electronics is Han Jong-hee, appointed CEO alongside Kyung Kye-Hyun in the company’s post-2021 reorganization and is not in the billionaire bracket.

Why did Samsung CEO go to jail?

Lee Jae-yong was convicted in 2017 of bribery and other charges in connection with the South Korean political scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. He was originally sentenced to 5 years in prison, then released on parole in August 2021 after serving a portion of the sentence. He was granted a presidential pardon in August 2022 by President Yoon Suk-yeol, and Lee was officially appointed executive chairman of Samsung Electronics on 27 October 2022.

Conclusion

Samsung Electronics ended 2024 with 262,647 employees, a roughly 2.8% three-year contraction from 270,278 at end-2022. The contraction is mostly outside Korea, where the company added 7,370 staff over the same window. The 240-site footprint, 76-country reach, and 2,503-supplier network put the directly employed headcount inside a much wider operating envelope. That envelope produced KRW 300.9 trillion in FY 2024 revenue and KRW 57.2 trillion in the most recent quarterly operating profit.

The data point that travels furthest is the working-level-to-manager-level shift; 17,428 fewer production-floor workers and 9,796 more managers across two years is structural rebalancing, not a layoff story. The DS Division’s trajectory suggests Samsung is now generating more operating profit per employee than at any prior point.