Foreign Workers
According to the Korea Labor Institute, the number of foreign employees in South Korea increased from 760,000 in 2013 to 962,000 in 2016. As of last year, a total of 437,000 foreign workers were employed in the domestic mining and manufacturing sector to account for 45.4% of the total and they were followed by 190,000 (19.7%) in wholesale, retail and lodging and food service and 187,000 (19.4%) in private and public service and business in general.
“The employment of South Korean females decreases by 0.15 percentage points whenever the ratio of foreign workers increases by one percentage point with respect to South Korean employees and the wage of South Korean workers falls by 0.2% to 1.1% whenever that of foreign workers increases by 1%,” the institute explained, adding, “The South Korean government needs to protect South Korean employees and job seekers by, for example, imposing levies on firms hiring foreigners.”
On the contrary, the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training claimed that foreign employees are necessary as a type of supplementation. “Although oversupply is forecast to continue until 2030 in the domestic labor market, some sectors in the market are likely to undergo the lack of workers and foreign workers have to be utilized for a higher level of utility of domestic workers and labor market restructuring,” it mentioned, pointing out, “Conditions should be taken into account such as the progress of the fourth industrial revolution, too.”
The South Korean government, in the meantime, is planning to hire more foreign professionals in South Korea while reducing the number of low-skilled foreign workers in the country. Recently, it fixed the number of foreigners to be employed in the country this year at 56,000, 2,000 less than a year ago, in view of restructuring to be underway in various sectors this year.
Some experts are opposed to the government’s plan to reduce the number of low-skilled foreign workers in South Korea. “The fourth industrial revolution will cause some jobs to disappear but will create some jobs at the same time,” said the IOM Migration Research & Training Centre, adding, “For example, more workers may be necessary in fields like healthcare for senior citizens.” It went on to say, “The government would be well advised to check whether foreign workers are currently in the right place to be.”