Door is opened wider for foreign non-professional workers

Migrant workers at a tomato farm in Gangwon in April. [YONHAP]

The government started accepting applications from foreign workers for an expanded category of work visas on Monday. They will be accepted through Sept. 29.

Last month, the Employment and Labor Ministry raised the quota for non-professional employment E-9 visas for this year from 59,000 to 69,000.

Some 6,800 of the 10,000 new visas will be allocated to the manufacturing sector, with1,230 going to farms, 610 to fish farms and 360 for construction jobs.

There was a sharp drop in the number of foreign workers when Korea shut its borders during the pandemic, which led to a shortage of workers available for SMEs and farms.

The number of foreign workers dropped to 6,688 in 2020 from 51,365 in 2019. In 2021, the number of E-9 visa holders that entered the country was 10,501.

A recent study found that manufacturing is short 74,000 workers, with shipbuilding alone short 48,000. Wholesale and retail businesses are short 30,000, while restaurants and hotels need 26,000.

Since taking office in May, the Yoon Suk-yeol government has tried to ease the labor shortage.

"While the job market situation is improving, there are industries that still struggle with worker shortages," Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said last month when announcing the increase in E-9 visas. "As of June, there were 234,000 unfilled jobs, the most since February 2018."

According to the government, 2,671 people entered the country on E-9 visa in January, which rose to 10,721 in August.

It was the first time this year that more than 10,000 E-9 visa holders entered the country in a single month.

The government is also taking steps to protect foreign workers from job accidents. Starting in December, any company that has been penalized over the death of a foreign worker will be restricted from hiring foreign workers.

In February, even small farms including fish farms that have fewer than five employees will have to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance or farmers’ safety insurance.

According to the Employment and Labor Ministry. information on applications for E-9 visas can be found on the website www.eps.go.kr.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]