SMEs "We Need 5.4 More Foreign Workers"

Korea Federation of SMEs, 2022 Comprehensive Survey on Foreign Workforce Utilization Challenges

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies hope to hire an average of 5.4 additional foreign workers. The reasons include domestic workers' reluctance to work, the implementation of the 52-hour workweek system, and the decrease in the working-age population due to the demographic cliff.

The Korea Federation of SMEs (Chairman Kim Ki-moon) announced on the 18th the results of a 'Comprehensive Survey on Difficulties Related to Hiring Foreign Workers' conducted on 1,000 small and medium-sized manufacturing companies employing foreign workers. According to the survey, compared to domestic workers under the same conditions, the productivity of foreign workers is about 53.8% during the initial employment period (less than 3 months) but improves to about 93.0% when working for more than 3 years.

Opinions on the Employment Quota for Foreign Workers

The majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (81.0%) believe that the current maximum stay period for foreign workers (up to 9 years and 8 months) is insufficient. 62.9% of the responding companies answered that an additional extension of more than 3 years is necessary. Regarding the intention to hire skilled professionals with technical expertise, 31.9% of the respondents expressed willingness to hire.

Small and medium-sized enterprises identified the most urgent improvement task for the current Employment Permit System as 'establishing sanctions against unfaithful foreign workers.' This means that institutional measures are needed for cases such as workers attempting to change their workplace to areas where they have relatives immediately after entering the country or demanding high wages while being unfaithful to their duties.

Lee Myung-ro, Director of the Smart Job Headquarters at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "As domestic workers' reluctance to work in unskilled jobs intensifies, the demand for foreign workers in the field is expected to continuously increase, so flexible system operation such as expanding the annual intake scale is necessary," and "at the same time, balanced policies are required, including strengthening vocational training to improve the low productivity of foreign workers and imposing disadvantages on workers who unjustly request workplace changes without any fault of the company."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.