Gov't to Allow Labor-strapped Service Sector to Hire More Foreigners

Gov't to Allow Labor-strapped Service Sector to Hire More Foreigners

Korea's service sector will be featuring more foreign faces. Hotels, restaurants and related services will be able to employ a larger number of foreigners for the first time in order to break through their manpower shortage, the Labor Ministry said on Nov. 8. Accommodation services such as inns and motels, regulated by the Health and Welfare Ministry, will be able to start employing foreigners from the end of this year. Under the new regulation, accommodation services, other than hotels, will now be able to hire foreign nationals but only those who are over 45 years of age and have emigrated from Korea in the past. This specific qualification was set just for this sector in order to limit employment to those that can speak Korean fluently, the ministry said. Hotels, regulated separately by the Tourism Ministry, will be allowed to start hiring foreign nationals from Nov. 12. In detail, foreigners with English skills will be able to work at hotels located in industrial sites frequented by foreigners, but the program is operating on a trial run only, the ministry explained. Also starting from now, restaurants with six to 10 employees will be able to employ up to four foreign nationals, a rise from the current limit of three. These and other measures are to help alleviate a manpower shortage in the nation's service industry. The government also decided to expand the employment opportunities for foreigners in other industries such as construction, farming and livestock, with improved operation of Korean-language tests offered to those wishing to work in Korea. There are over one million foreigners residing in Korea with nearly 430,000 working here.


From http://www.korea.net/ 11/09/2007