Visa flexibility could help alleviate SME labor shortage

Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-ju. [Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

South Korean Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-ju, who took office on January 2nd, 2024, is exploring measures to address the severe labor shortage among the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by granting flexibility in visa status for international students studying in the country.

“To alleviate the labor shortage in SMEs, we need to actively recruit foreigners who are already in Korea,” Oh said during an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper on March 15th.

“Instead of bringing in unverified foreign workers, we should encourage international students studying in Korea to naturally find employment here,” she said, adding, “It would be more effective, particularly if foreign students studying in regional areas could find employment in those areas via industry-academia partnerships.”

To facilitate this, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to suggest improvements to relevant ministries to allow these students to easily change their student visas to E-7 visas, which permit employment.

Many Korean startups hope to hire exceptional overseas talent for their research and development (R&D) departments. However, as a principle, foreign specialist workers can only make up to 20 percent of the Korean workforce, limiting the recruitment of R&D personnel. Oh addressed this by saying, “To address these on-site difficulties, the government will discuss the matter with related ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, and expand the ratio of employing foreign workers through the government-level task force.”

As consumers’ focus shifts to online platforms, small business owners marginalized in digitalization find their sales channels blocked. Oh pointed to exports as a solution, suggesting, “I was surprised to learn that many small business owners are exporting products via overseas e-commerce platforms… while the onslaught of low-priced Chinese products through Chinese e-commerce platforms like AliExpress and TaoBao is daunting, we are considering ways to promote the export of Korean products via online platforms.”

On the argument of the government’s fearmongering regarding the expansion of the Serious Accident Punishment Act to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, Oh rebutted, “This is about telling the truth as well as education and promotion; it is by no means fear marketing. We will announce measures for small business owners with significant concerns shortly.”