Korean SMEs still need more foreign workforce: Survey

[Photo by Yonhap]

South Korean small-to-medium-sized firms, or SMEs, still grapple with a lack of foreign workers, despite a recent visa scheme aimed at increasing foreign labor immigration into the country to a record high, according to the latest survey released on Monday. Korean companies cited “foreign workers’ lack of Korean language skills” as the biggest problem they face in the workplace.

The survey results were released on Monday as part of the research paper published by the Korea Federation of SMEs on the difficulties in managing foreign workforces. In the survey of 1,200 SME employers of foreign workers, 29.7 percent of the respondents reported they suffer from a lack of immigrant workers, adding that 4.9 workers more on average were needed.

“Expanding the calculation to the entire 54,780 companies heavily dependent on E-9 visas for non-professional employment suggested that a total of 16,270 companies need 79,723 foreign workers to fill in low-end positions,” the paper said.

Although Korea issued a record high of 165,000 working visas in 2023, compared with 120,000 a year ago, the survey suggested that the industry still needs 35,000 more.

When asked what makes it hard for them to hire domestic workers, most respondents cited the “growing reluctance of Korean job seekers to work for SMEs,” with 89.8 percent, up 21.8 percent from the previous survey.

Sixty-five percent of the surveyed firms said the country of origin was the most important consideration in hiring foreign workers. Job applicants’ Korean language skills and physical conditions were followed by 48 percent and 33.4 percent respectively.

Nearly half of the respondents, or 49.7 percent, said communication difficulties were the biggest difficulty in managing their foreign labor force.