Vietnamese lead record-high foreign job growth in S.Korea

The number of foreign employees in South Korea reached an all-time high this year, with the Vietnamese leading the pack, amid rising minimum wages and chronic labor shortages in Asia's No. 4 economy.

Almost 90% of foreign workers expressed their wishes to remain on after their visas expired, the statistics office said, as the Korean government is loosening immigration controls on foreign nationals, even unskilled workers, to cope with the falling birth rate in the country, which also has the world's lowest.

As of May this year, a total of 923,000 foreigners were employed in South Korea, marking the largest-ever number of foreign hires in the country since the relevant data were compiled in 2012, Statistics Korea said on Monday.

That represented their employment rate of 64.5%. It was a decrease of 0.3 percentage point, but attributable to a rise in foreign students, according to a 2023 foreign immigrants’ residence status and employment survey conducted by the government agency.

The number of foreign residents in South Korea over the age of 15 reached 1.43 million as of May this year, a 9.9% gain from the year prior. It marked the largest-ever on-year growth in their number since the relevant survey began in 2012.

VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANTS

Some 32,000 Vietnamese got their first jobs in South Korea this year, the largest group by nationality. They were followed by 5,000 Chinese, excluding Korean descendants, who were added to the payroll for the first time in the country.

Vietnamese also made up the lion’s share of 51,000 foreign residents aged 15 or older who acquired Korean nationality within the past five years.

By nationality before naturalization, Vietnamese accounted for 42% with 21,000, followed by Korean-Chinese at 34% during the period.

WAGE INCREASE

Thanks to minimum wage growth, foreigners earning more than 3 million won ($2,310) per month reached 24.4% of foreign workers in the country.

That was an increase of 9.2 percentage points, compared to two years ago and also marked the largest-ever increase in the number of foreign nationals added to the income bracket.

As of 2023, South Korea set the minimum monthly salary at 2 million won, breaking above the 2-million-won milestone for the first time in its history.

The proportion of foreign employees who expressed their wishes to stay in Korea after their visa expiration advanced 1.0 percentage point to 89.6% as of May this year compared to the previous year. The figure excludes those with permanent residence status.

By residency status, the number of foreigners with non-professional jobs grew by 60,000, followed by a 25,000 rise in the number of international students.

By age group, foreign immigrants aged between 15 and 39 increased by more than 100,000 from the year previous.

Write to Se-Min Huh at semin@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.