Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Number of foreign nationals in Korea rises to record high of 1.43 mil.
Newly-hired foreign workers from Nepal arrive at Incheon International Airport in this photo taken on June 20. Newsis
By Yi Whan-woo
Hiring of workers from abroad also reaches all-time high
The number of foreign nationals residing in Korea hit a record high of 1.43 million in May, data showed, Monday, amid a continuous decline in the total population of the country that is increasingly reliant on immigrants to remain above the 50 million mark.
The data released by Statistics Korea also showed a record-high 923,000 foreign nationals are employed here with more than half of them aged 30 or younger.
The trend is in line with the stats agency’s forecast that one out of three people in the working-age population, or between 15 and 64, will be foreign nationals by 2072 if the demographic crisis remains unsolved in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Measured in May 2023, the total number of foreign nationals marked a 9.9 percent increase from a year earlier and was the highest since 2012 when the government started compiling relevant data.
“The year-on-year increase this year was attributable to the end of the pandemic that led to an influx of unskilled laborers from abroad as well as international students,” a senior Statistics Korea official said during a press briefing.
The official noted that the number of foreign residents jumped from 1.23 million in 2017 to 1.32 million in 2019, but remained flat during the pandemic era during the next three years – 1.33 million in 2020 and 2021 and 1.3 million in 2022.
Of the total foreign population, 813,000 or 56.8 percent were men and the remaining 617,000 or 43.2 percent were women.
By country of origin, ethnic Koreans from China took up the largest share of the entire foreign population at 472,000 followed by Vietnamese at 201,000 and Chinese at 135,000.
In terms of year-on-year growth, however, the number of Vietnamese residents increased at the fast rate or by 32,000, outpacing Chinese whose numbers grew by 5,000. The number of ethnic Koreans, on the other hand, shrank by 7,000.
Also, 923,000 foreigners who landed jobs in Korea this year marked a year-on-year increase of 80,000 or 9.5 percent.
By age, those who are in their 30s accounted for 33.3 percent of the entire foreign workforce, followed by those aged between 15 to 29 at 23.2 percent.
Those in their 40s took up 18.5 percent and those in their 50s accounted for 15.7 percent.
The mining and manufacturing sectors combined were the biggest employers of foreign workers here. Some 44.6 percent of them had jobs in those industries, compared to 18.4 percent in wholesale and retail sales, accommodation and restaurant businesses combined, and another 15.5 percent in public services and small businesses.
Some 94.5 percent or 873,000 of the foreign employees were salaried workers, with more than half of them receiving monthly wages of 2 million won to 3 million won.
The number of foreign students jumped 14.1 percent year-on-year to 188,000. Students from Vietnam accounted for 38.3 percent, followed by China at 27.7 percent and Uzbekistan at 6.4 percent.