Korea to permit 53,000 foreign laborers next year

Korea will allow about 53,000 migrant workers under the non-professional employment (E-9) visa next year, an increase of 3,000 from this year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Sunday.

The figure includes about 5,600 workers with a reentry visa under the government’s foreign work permit system.

They will be assigned largely to the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fishing industries, which are suffering a worsening labor shortage.

Some 17,000 foreign employees will return to their home country next year when their visas expire.

About 420,000 people holding E-9 and overseas’ visiting employment (H-2) visas were in Korea as of September, according to the ministry.

The number of foreign laborers in the country had continuously increased until 2012, when the figure fell by 70,000 people on-year to some 409,600.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)