Measures to Address Job Vacancies to Include Construction, Shipping, and Fisheries...July Policy Announcement

Four Additional Industries Including Construction Selected
On-Site Inspection Teams to Operate This Month

The government plans to supplement existing measures for six major industries (manufacturing, logistics and transportation, health and welfare, restaurants, agriculture, and overseas construction) to fill the increasing number of vacant jobs, and to additionally select four industries (domestic construction, fisheries, shipping, and resource recycling) to prepare industry-specific policy support plans by July.

On the 14th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance held the 6th meeting of the joint task force (TF) on jobs with related ministries and announced that it will release a second plan supplementing and adding to the vacant job resolution plan announced on March 8 by July. The plan will include sector-specific support measures such as workforce inflow, improvement of working conditions, matching support, and utilization of foreign labor.

By the end of May, the government supported the hiring of 16,000 people in industries facing recruitment difficulties and selected 1,409 people as beneficiaries of the shipbuilding industry hope mutual aid fund. The quota for seasonal workers (E-8) was expanded to 13,000, and the stay period was extended (from 5 months to within 8 months). Regulations were also eased to allow overseas Koreans (F-4) to be employed in six additional detailed occupations such as kitchen assistants in restaurants and lodging industries.

Additionally, to listen to on-site difficulties, the government plans to establish and operate a vacant job on-site inspection team this month, jointly involving industry experts and related ministries. A government official stated, "We will thoroughly check the implementation status centered on the job task force and the on-site inspection team, and plan to review the job situation in the second half of the year and specify additional job policy tasks."

According to Statistics Korea, the number of vacant jobs in the country has been increasing: 163,000 in 2021, 214,000 in 2022, and 216,000 as of February 2023.

Bang Gi-seon, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is checking his phone before the start of the Job Task Force meeting held on the 14th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

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