A woman reads a brochure for a job fair for foreign residents in South Korea in southern Seoul in this Nov. 20, 2025, file photo. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreign workers in South Korea surpassed 1.1 million in 2025 to reach a record high, with the proportion of employed international students also sharply up, a survey showed Thursday.
As of May, there were 1.69 million foreigners aged 15 or older residing in Korea, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
Among them, more than 1.1 million people were employed, rising 9.8 percent on-year. The figure was the highest since the ministry began compiling such data in 2017.
Of those employed, the number of international students jumped by 23,000, or 71.8 percent, to 56,000 as the overall number of students coming to study in Korea increased amid the global popularity of Korean culture and government policies to attract more international students.
The number of non-professional workers rose 6.1 percent to 321,000 and professional workers climbed 25.7 percent to 82,000, while the number of workers with permanent residence visas went up 17.1 percent to 123,000.
By nationality, there were 341,000 Chinese nationals with ethnic Korean background working here, 149,000 Vietnamese workers and 54,000 Chinese workers.
On August 21, international students pose for a commemorative photo in front of the Seokdang Museum after the 2024 fall semester graduation farewell ceremony for foreign students at Dong-A University’s Bumin Campus in Seo District, Busan. This semester, a total of 74 international students from nine countries graduated, including 22 undergraduates, 45 from the general graduate school, and 7 from the international graduate school. (Yonhap)
By age, some 33 percent of foreign workers here were in their 30s, followed by 25.7 percent aged between 15 and 29, and 18.7 percent in their 40s.
Nearly 45 percent of all foreign workers in Korea were in the manufacturing and mining industries, while 20.4 percent were in the retail, wholesale, accommodation and food services sectors.
Some nine percent had jobs in the agro-fisheries sector and another nine percent had jobs in the construction sector.
The employment rate of foreigners came to 65.5 percent this year, up 0.8 percentage point from 2024, while the unemployment rate also added 0.7 percentage point to 6.4 percent.
More than half of foreign wage workers received an average monthly salary of between 2 million won (US$1,353) and 3 million won, while 36.9 percent had a monthly wage of over 3 million won.
Nearly 70 percent of the wage workers said they were satisfied with their job here.
Meanwhile, the number of foreigners aged 15 or above granted naturalization in Korea stood at 52,000 this year, up 1,000 from 2024, according to the survey.
(Yonhap)
