Korea to increase foreign worker quota by 10,000 in 2022

South Korea is set to raise the quota of foreign workers by 10,000 this year to address labor shortage issues in the country’s shipbuilding, manufacturing, agriculture and other industries.   

The government decided on Wednesday to increase allotments for E-9 visas, which is for non-professional foreign workers entering Korea.

Accordingly, the quota of annual foreign workers will expand from 59,000 to 69,000 this year. The figure is the highest after 72,000 in 2008.

The government will assign the increased workforce to each sector based on the its needs. The manufacturing industry will have 6,800 newcomers; agricultural-livestock will have 1,230 new foreign workers; while fishing and construction will be assigned 610 and 360, respectively.   

The government will manage a workforce of another 1,000 newcomers with more flexibility, which means their industry will be decided by the sectors’ demand shifts.

The government will also increase the foreign worker quota for domestic companies. A Korean manufacturing firm, which employs 1-10 local workers, has been able to hire 5-7 foreign workers -- it will increase to 6-9 foreigners under the revised laws.  

The agricultural-livestock sector will increase the current 5-10 foreign employees quota to 7-12 for its first three levels of the total five farming sizes.    

The manufacturing industry will expand the application of special re-entry permission, which has been available for a business with fewer than 100 workers, to those with 100 employees or more. The construction sector will be able to transfer foreign workers to other sites if a previous building project is suspended. 

Write to Jin-gyu Kang at josep@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.