How many foreign researchers worked at Korean companies in 2025?

Korean companies employed 3,155 foreign researchers in 2025, representing 0.7 percent of the total corporate research workforce. Only 1,945 of the 72,224 corporate R&D organizations registered with KOITA employed foreign researchers.

Why do Korean companies struggle to hire foreign researchers?

The biggest obstacle is handling visa and related administrative procedures, cited by 51.4 percent of surveyed companies. Employers must select the correct visa, manage residency-status changes, prepare recommendation documents, register foreign employees and process stay extensions; recruitment and job matching were the next-largest challenge.

Foreign nationals make up 0.7% of Korea's research workforce, visa hurdles persist

Q: How do Korean companies assess the performance of foreign researchers?

Companies with experience employing foreign researchers generally assessed their performance positively, with 73.1 percent expressing satisfaction with their expertise and research outcomes. Despite that assessment, the report said visa procedures and job matching continue to hinder recruitment and long-term employment.

Listen

Summary

Foreign researchers accounted for 0.7 percent of Korea’s corporate research workforce in 2025, while companies reported visa and administrative procedures as their biggest hiring obstacle. The Korea Industrial Technology Association found that 1,945 of 72,224 registered corporate R&D organizations employed foreign researchers. Although the number of foreign researchers rose 21.4 percent over the past decade, their workforce share remained virtually unchanged.

Key Facts

The 1,945 companies employing foreign researchers represented 2.7 percent of the 72,224 corporate research and development organizations registered with KOITA in 2025.
A KOITA survey of 1,225 companies conducted from Aug. 21 to 28 found that 73.1 percent of employers with foreign-researcher experience were satisfied with their expertise and research outcomes.
Visa and related administrative procedures were cited as a major hiring challenge by 51.4 percent of surveyed companies, followed by recruitment and job matching at 32.3 percent and communication difficulties at 28 percent.
Companies must determine appropriate visa statuses, obtain or change residency statuses, prepare employment recommendation documents, register foreign employees and apply for extensions of stay.
The number of corporate R&D organizations employing foreign researchers increased 57.9 percent over the past decade, while the number of foreign researchers rose 21.4 percent.

By Nam Hyun-woo

Published Oct 20, 2026 3:16 pm KST

Foreign experts accounted for less than 1 percent of research personnel at Korean companies, a report showed Tuesday, with companies identifying visa and related administrative issues as the biggest obstacles to hiring foreign workers in the field.

According to the report by the Korea Industrial Technology Association (KOITA), there were 72,224 corporate research and development organizations registered with the association in 2025. Of those, only 1,945, or 2.7 percent, employed foreign researchers. The number of foreign researchers stood at 3,155, accounting for just 0.7 percent of the total research workforce.

The number of research and development organizations employing foreign researchers and the number of foreign researchers increased 57.9 percent and 21.4 percent over the past decade, respectively. However, foreign researchers' share of the total research workforce remained virtually unchanged at around 0.7 percent.

The report also included a survey of 1,225 companies conducted from Aug. 21 to 28 to assess their experiences with foreign researchers, hiring plans and recruitment challenges.

According to the survey, businesses with experience employing foreign researchers generally gave positive assessments of their performance, with 73.1 percent expressing satisfaction with their expertise and research outcomes.

However, 51.4 percent of respondents cited visa and related administrative procedures as a major challenge in hiring foreign researchers, followed by recruitment and job matching at 32.3 percent and communication difficulties at 28 percent.

Companies hiring foreign researchers must determine the appropriate visa status for each research position and obtain visas or make changes to their employees' residency status. They must also handle administrative procedures, including preparing employment recommendation documents, registering foreign employees and applying for extensions of stay.

The report noted that these burdens could be particularly heavy for small and medium-sized enterprises that lack dedicated personnel to handle such procedures.

“Companies which have employed foreign researchers highly value their expertise and research performance, but they face difficulties with visa and administrative procedures and job matching,” KOITA Executive Deputy Chairman Cho Nak-hyun said.

“We need to improve the support system with a focus on actual hiring needs so that companies that need foreign researchers can hire suitable talent and work with them over the long term.”

Explore More