Travelers arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of Seoul, on July 2, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will explore ways to accept more foreign workers to address its low birth rates and workforce shortages, the finance ministry said Friday.
“We need to work together to reach a social consensus that accepting foreign workers and rolling out immigration policies are vital for the sustainable growth of the economy,” First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun said during a meeting on foreign labor policies.
The meeting came as South Korea has been exploring ways to invite more foreign workers to the country, as its working population is expected to reach 33.81 million in 2030, falling sharply from 37.63 million tallied in 2019.
“(The decline) is set to lead to a shortage of workforce in the labor market, with the economic growth expected to slow,” Bang said.
The South Korean government recently decided to expand the number of skilled foreign workers eligible for the E-7 visa, granted to those with special abilities, to 30,000 in 2023, compared to 2,000 tallied in the previous year.
“We will proactively assess the potential social and economic challenges that may arise with increased immigration, while simultaneously improving settlement conditions and promoting social integration,” Bang said.
South Korea’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, hit a record low of 0.78 in 2022, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea’s population stable at 51 million.
The government plans to unveil its blueprint for immigration policy in the second half of 2023.
(Yonhap)
