Nearly half of firms (46.8%) support further expansion of the country’s existing foreign labour quota, reports The Korea Herald, citing survey research from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The research also showed that 43.2% of respondents supported maintaining the existing foreign labour quota while 9.2% of respondents said quotas should be reduced and 0.8% said they had no opinion on the issue. The survey on the employment status of foreign labour was conducted with 502 companies that currently employ foreign workers.

Meanwhile, two major business lobby groups (including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Korea International Trade Association), yesterday called on the government to expand the current quotas of foreign labour in 2024 and enhance the foreign labour system to help enterprises grappling with worker shortages. In response to a decreased number of foreign workers in South Korea due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government increased the quota for non-professional foreign workers with E-9 visas to a record high of 110,000 individuals this year.

More than half of the companies (57.2%) also responded that they feel there is an insufficient number of nonprofessional foreign workers with E-9 visas when asked about their availability. The primary reason for the shortage was the vacant positions resulting from Korean workers' changing jobs (41.5%).