Foreign Workforce Employment Greatly Increased... 'Domestic Hiring Effort' Shortened to 7 Days

First Employment Permit Applications Received 35,000
Over 73% Increase Compared to Last Year
Domestic Hiring Effort Period Reduced from 14 to 7 Days

Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jeong-sik is explaining the agenda on employment issues at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting and Price-Related Ministers' Meeting held on the 16th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun

The government has significantly increased the employment of foreign workers to fill vacant jobs in manufacturing, shipbuilding, and other industries. The period during which companies facing labor shortages in industrial sites must first try to hire domestic workers before employing foreigners has also been halved.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that from the 29th of this month to the 8th of next month, it will accept the first new employment permit applications of the year for foreign workers under the Employment Permit System (E-9) through local employment and labor offices nationwide. The issuance scale for this round is 35,000, which is more than a 73% increase compared to the first application scale last year.

By industry, the numbers are 23,232 for manufacturing, 1,500 for shipbuilding, 4,209 for agriculture and livestock, 2,595 for fisheries, 1,632 for construction, and 1,297 for services. For excess demand by industry, 20,000 flexible allocation slots will be utilized.

Last month, the government expanded the introduction scale of foreign workers (E-9) to a record high of 165,000. This policy aims to lower the employment threshold for foreigners only in industries and regions where business management is difficult without foreign labor. Additionally, considering that employment permit applications are concentrated at the beginning of the year, about 30% of the annual introduction scale has been allocated to this first round.

Application requirements have also been relaxed. Starting from this application, the period for domestic worker recruitment efforts required for employment permit applications in manufacturing, shipbuilding, construction, and service industries has been shortened to 7 days. Previously, only agriculture, livestock, and fisheries required 7 days, while manufacturing and others required 14 days.

Employers wishing to hire foreign workers can apply for employment permits by visiting the local employment and labor office or through the website after making a 7-day effort to recruit domestic workers.

The results of this round’s employment permit applications will be announced on the 28th of next month. Issuance will take place from the 29th of next month to March 8 for manufacturing and shipbuilding, and from March 11 to 15 for agriculture, livestock, fisheries, construction, and service industries.

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