S. Korea Hosts 716,000 Foreign Workers

A growing demand for labor by S. Korea’s small firms has swollen the ranks of foreign workers to 2.9 percent of the total labor force, according to the Ministry of Labor and Employment Thursday.

Of a total of 1.39 million foreign nationals living in S. Korea as of late June, over 716,000 came to work. Over two-thirds (68.3 percent) or 490,000 have obtained work permits, while 166,000 (23.6 percent) are working illegally. About 15,000 are working in country under short-term contracts to develop foreign trainees.

Chinese nationals make up the largest share of S. Korea’s foreign workers, with 310,000. Of those 290,000 are ethnic Koreans. Vietnamese workers number 65,000, followed by Filipinos (30,000), Indonesians (28,000), Thais (25,000) and Uzbeks (20,000).

The majority (52.7 percent) work in manufacturing, while 30 percent are the service sector, and 13.2 percent work in construction. Small firms with ten or fewer workers employ 70.8 percent of foreign workers. A work permit system introduced in 2004 allows Korean firms to hire foreign workers for up to four years and 10 months.

The total number of foreign workers comprise 2.9 percent of S. Korea’s labor force of 24.66 million.