South Korea to Allow Foreigners to Work at Restaurants

A restaurant worker prepares to greet customers on Oct. 18, 2021. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to accept more foreign workers to relieve a chronic labor shortage at restaurants.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has been discussing plans with relevant agencies to include restaurants in the list of jobs open to foreigners holding E-9 non-professional employment visas by the end of next year.

Currently, only Korean expatriates from China and former Soviet republics holding an H-2 work and visit visa can work at restaurants. Now, the the government is expected to allow foreigners from up to 16 countries to work at food vendors.

In consideration of language barriers, however, the ministry is considering accepting foreigners as kitchen staff first rather than the dining hall staff.

This year, only 100 people among all foreigners holding E-9 visas (59,000 people) are working in the service industry (construction, waste management, and publishing).

Compared to other sectors like manufacturing (44,500), agriculture and livestock businesses (8,000) and fisheries (4,000), the number of people employed in the service industry is significantly lower.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor reported that the restaurant industry was facing a labor shortage of 74,361 people earlier this year, which is 2.8 times higher than last year.

Statistics Korea said that there were a total of 1.9 million people working in the restaurant industry as of 2020, accounting for 7.7 percent of all employment.

Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)