Minister Song Miryung Visits Agricultural Seasonal Worker Site: "Active Public-Sector Labor Supply During Peak Farming Season"

Record-High 104,000 Foreign Workers Allocated to Agriculture This Year
Swift Entry of Seasonal Workers Supported by Dedicated "Seasonal Worker Teams"
Special Task Force for Peak Farming Season Labor Support Operates Until June 30

On May 8, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Miryung visited the site of foreign seasonal workers in Imsil-gun, Jeollabuk-do, where she listened to local government and NongHyup officials about the employment trends and challenges of agricultural labor during the busy farming season. She also inspected the workplaces and accommodations of foreign seasonal workers to check their working conditions.

According to the 2024 Agricultural Employment Survey, the demand for agricultural labor during the peak seasons (April to June and September to October) accounts for 61.6% of the total demand, amounting to 16.13 million workers. The Ministry plans to actively supply public-sector labor during these periods by introducing foreign seasonal workers in a timely manner and by revitalizing rural labor brokerage and volunteer work programs.

For the first half of this year, a record-high 104,000 foreign workers have been allocated to the agricultural sector. The public seasonal worker program, in which NongHyup employs seasonal workers and supplies them to small farms on a daily basis, has also expanded from 3,067 workers last year to 5,039 this year.

In addition, the ministry is pushing to expand the consigned seasonal worker program, which allows eligible corporations to hire seasonal workers and perform agricultural work on behalf of individual farms.

To facilitate the swift entry of seasonal workers, dedicated "seasonal worker teams" will be operated at major immigration offices. Considering the difficulty for seasonal workers to visit immigration offices for foreigner registration during the busy farming season, major immigration offices will also provide an on-site fingerprint registration service.

To expand the supply of domestic labor, the ministry will increase support for transportation and accommodation expenses for workers supplied to agricultural sites through 189 rural labor brokerage centers starting this year. Since May 4, agricultural job information has also been provided through Albamon, an online job search and recruitment platform.

The ministry will operate a special task force for supporting labor during the peak farming season until June 30, focusing on 35 cities and counties that are the main production regions for 10 key crops such as apples, peaches, grapes, garlic, and peppers. The task force will include the Ministry of Justice, local governments, and NongHyup. Through this, the ministry will monitor workforce supply and wage trends in each city and county on a weekly basis, and for areas facing labor shortages, will resolve the issue by sharing the labor pool with neighboring regions and intensively dispatching volunteer workers.

Minister Song stated, "We will strengthen communication with the field to prevent labor shortages in rural areas during the busy farming season, and establish a close cooperation system with relevant agencies."

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