Service sector permit issuance rate at 59%, below overall average of 82%

Construction sector applications reach only 683, a third of annual quota of 2,000

Foreign workers at a mold manufacturing company in Gyeonggi Province. As authorities push to ease regional restrictions on foreign workers, small and medium-sized enterprises are growing concerned about labor outflows. [Korea Federation of SMEs]
Foreign workers at a mold manufacturing company in Gyeonggi Province. As authorities push to ease regional restrictions on foreign workers, small and medium-sized enterprises are growing concerned about labor outflows. [Korea Federation of SMEs]

The number of foreign workers staying in South Korea under the employment permit system has surpassed 287,000, reaching an all-time high. While 80 percent of them work in manufacturing, only 59 percent of employment permit applications in the service sector resulted in approvals. With construction demand shrinking amid a sector-wide slump, calls are growing for the system to be tailored more closely to industry-specific labor needs.

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Wi-sang of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee released data Wednesday obtained from the Ministry of Employment and Labor showing that the number of foreign workers in South Korea under the E-9 employment permit system stood at 287,424 as of July.

The number of permit holders has risen steadily from 159,463 in 2021 to 203,121 in 2022, 247,191 in 2023, 271,925 in 2024 and 282,839 last year. The July figure represents an increase of 4,585 from last year and a rise of 127,961 — or 80.2 percent — compared with 2021.

The employment permit system allows small and medium-sized enterprises and other employers that cannot find domestic workers to hire unskilled foreign labor. Although the overall foreign workforce has expanded, significant disparities have emerged in the distribution across industries and in permit application and issuance rates.

By sector, manufacturing accounted for the largest share, with 229,844 workers — 80.0 percent of the total. Agriculture and livestock followed with 33,878 workers (11.8 percent), and fishing with 15,441 (5.4 percent). Construction employed 6,724 foreign workers (2.3 percent), while the service sector had 1,410 (0.5 percent). An additional 127 workers were employed in other industries.

The service sector stood out for its particularly low permit issuance rate relative to applications. As of July, the overall issuance rate across all sectors was 82.0 percent, with 31,986 permits issued out of 38,998 applications. The service sector, however, saw only 333 of 564 applications approved, putting its issuance rate at 59.0 percent — 23.0 percentage points below the overall average.

In construction, the problem ran in the opposite direction: applications themselves have dried up. Only 683 workers were requested as of July, just 34.2 percent of the sector's annual quota of 2,000. Kim's office attributed the low demand to a prolonged construction slump.

The figures have prompted calls to look beyond simply expanding the foreign workforce and to examine how permit issuance aligns with actual demand by sector. In some industries, approvals are failing to keep pace with applications, while in others, applications are falling well short of allocated quotas due to economic downturns.

"Although the overall number of employment permit applications has declined amid the economic slowdown, the concentration in certain sectors and the resulting imbalances have actually worsened," Kim said, calling for a structural overhaul to address labor supply-demand mismatches across industries.


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