Shipbuilders, chip and car makers need workers

Nearly all shipyards are suffering labor shortages and semiconductors and advanced car factories are not faring much better. Because of an uptick in orders, the domestic shipbuilding industry has struggled to find labor.

An empty dock at a shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang. [MOON HEE-CHUL]

Nearly all shipyards are suffering labor shortages and semiconductors and advanced car factories are not faring much better.

Because of an uptick in orders, the domestic shipbuilding industry has struggled to find labor. Last week, over a thousand welders from Vietnam were denied entry due to work visa problems, leading to an emergency at many shipyards.

The government has promised to ease requirements for foreign workers in the shipbuilding industry, but that hasn't happened yet.

At shipyards, the consensus is that the long recession from 2014 to 2020 forced skilled workers to leave. The “workforce pool has already collapsed,” according to an industry insider.

Other industries suffering from labor shortages include semiconductors and advanced cars, according to a new survey result by the Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF). Advanced cars refers to electric vehicles, self-driving cars and hydrogen-fueled cars.

Forty-five percent of companies in the semiconductor industry said they were short of manpower. In advanced cars, 43 percent responded similarly and in the bio-health industry, 29 percent said the same. The KEF surveyed 415 companies.

While 52.2 percent of shipbuilders complained of overall labor shortages, 96.6 percent said they lacked workers in production, or workers on site at shipyards.

Many companies in shipbuilding, semiconductors and cars predicted labor shortages in production would continue for the next five years.

Some 46.7 percent of shipbuilders said frequent turnover and workers quitting were their main manpower problem. In semiconductors, 38.3 percent of surveyed companies said the same.

In bio-health and advanced cars, companies said their main problem was a dearth of applications from qualified workers. Fifty-five percent of companies in bio-health said so and 44.2 percent in advanced cars.

Most companies responded that it was impossible to judge whether workforce supplies in core jobs other than production - such as R&D, design, maintenance and sales - will improve in the next five years. The global market environment is changing too fast, and companies are having a hard time predicting what will happen.

Many companies said they wanted some kind of support system from the government covering costs of recruitment. In semiconductors, 25 percent of the surveyed companies said nurturing skilled talent through cooperation between companies and universities is vital, while 23 percent said that early education in specialized high schools is necessary.

In the case of the advanced cars, more support for company-tailored training programs was cited as a possible solution.

"For now, we need to resolve the labor shortage on site by providing stronger vocational training in the production field and making it easier for companies to employ workers," said Lim Young-tae, head of the employment policy team at KEF. "It is important for companies and universities to cooperate more closely."

BY LEE HEE-KWON, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]