Nearly 75% of Korean companies open to hiring foreign workers, survey reveals

Nearly three-quarters of Korean companies are open to hiring foreign nationals, according to a survey by job listing service Saramin on Thursday.

Job seekers visit the Busan International Student Job Fair in September. [YONHAP]

Nearly three-quarters of Korean companies are open to hiring foreign nationals, according to a survey by job listing service Saramin on Thursday.

The survey, which included 557 companies, found that 73.4 percent expressed willingness to employ foreign workers. Of those respondents, 44.7 percent reported having previously hired foreigners.

The primary reason cited by 60.1 percent of companies was a lack of Korean applicants. With multiple answers allowed, another 27.1 percent said so because foreign employees were more diligent than Koreans and are willing to stay at the company longer.

Another 19.1 percent were willing to do so because their business targets overseas customers or were planning to expand abroad, 18.1 percent due to lower pay and 8.1 percent because they already had a lot of foreign employees.

Respondents most wanted to hire foreign nationals in the manufacturing and production fields, with 42.5 percent of survey respondents saying so, with multiple answers also allowed.

The services sector followed with 16.1 percent, sales and trade at 12.1 percent, construction at 11.7 percent, IT and data science at 8.6 percent and delivery and logistics at 5.6 percent. Marketing, advertisement and PR followed with 5.4 percent, education with 4.9 percent, design with 4.4 percent and research and development at 3.9 percent.

Regarding nationality, 31.3 percent of the respondents said they preferred Vietnamese nationals. Multiple answers were also allowed. However, 24.9 percent said they do not have a specific preference for nationality.

Preference for applicants from Central Asia followed with 20 percent, the Philippines with 18.6 percent, Mongolia with 16.1 percent, United States and Canada with 8.8 percent, India with 8.6 percent and Japan with 8.6 percent.

When asked about improvements needed to encourage more foreign hiring, also a multiple choice question, 46.9 percent of the respondents said administrative issues such as visas need to be improved.

Another 38.6 percent said Korean language education and culture experience programs were needed, while 36.8 percent said there needs to be an efficient system to assess foreign applicants and 31.4 percent said headhunting for foreign talent needs to be made easier. Support for foreigners to settle down in Korea followed with 25.5 percent, public and private sectors partnering to help with hiring international workers with 18.3 percent and inviting more international students and offering employment opportunities for students with 16.2 percent.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]