Many domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers that use foreign workers cited difficulty hiring Korean nationals, rather than cutting labor costs, as the main reason for employing foreign workers.
The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises announced on the 11th the results of the "2025 comprehensive survey on difficulties related to hiring foreign workers," conducted on 1,223 small and medium-sized companies using foreign workers.
In the survey, 82.6% cited "difficulty hiring Korean nationals" as the reason for employing foreign workers, far outpacing "reducing labor costs" (13.4%). Aversion among Korean nationals to working in domestic industrial worksites stood at 89.8% in 2023, 90.2% in 2024, and 92.9% in 2025, showing a trend of deepening each year. This indicates a structural expansion in small manufacturers' reliance on foreign workers.
The burden of labor costs for foreign workers also proved significant. The average monthly labor cost per foreign worker was 2,532,000 won, including salary of 2,165,000 won, overtime pay of 321,000 won, and other incidental costs of 46,000 won. Adding 396,000 won for room and board brings the total labor cost per person to 2,928,000 won. Among responding corporations, 66.6% said foreign workers receive salaries similar to those of Korean workers.
While salaries have steadily risen, overtime pay has decreased. The average salary for foreign workers increased from 2,113,000 won in 2023 to 2,131,000 won in 2024 and 2,165,000 won in 2025, but overtime pay fell from 481,000 won to 425,000 won and then to 321,000 won over the same period. This is seen as reflecting a slowdown in the small manufacturing sector.
Because of these cost burdens, 97.8% of responding corporations said they are hiring foreign workers below the statutory employment cap. The main reasons for falling short of the cap were non-wage hiring expense burdens (application fees, room and board, etc., 44.2%), labor cost burdens due to minimum wage hikes (36.6%), and fewer orders due to the economic downturn (34.9%).
On productivity, the need for a probationary period stood out. The productivity of foreign workers employed for less than three months was only 66.8% of that of Korean workers. Accordingly, 97.1% of responding corporations said a probationary period is necessary, and the appropriate probationary period was found to average 3.4 months.
The share of foreign workers handling highly skilled jobs through long tenure is also rising quickly. Responses that highly skilled duties are assigned according to years of service increased from 29.5% in 2024 to 48.2% in 2025. In particular, among corporations with 31 to 50 employees, 59.7% said foreign workers are being deployed to highly skilled jobs.
Corporations recognized that long tenure by foreign workers is necessary to secure productivity. Among responding corporations, 94% said "three years or longer" is appropriate as the minimum period of employment for foreign workers under the employment permit system, with "more than three years" at 74.4% and "three years" at 19.6%.
As hiring considerations, country of origin (59.4%) and Korean-language ability (56.3%) were similar in share. The gap between the two items was only 3.1 percentage points. In actual management of foreign workers, 52.1% of corporations cited "communication problems" as the biggest difficulty, and misunderstandings of work instructions and production disruptions due to this were the most common at 63.9%.
As tasks to improve the current employment permit system, establishing sanctions for insincere foreign workers ranked highest at 41%. Next were extending the length of stay for foreign workers (31.5%) and creating a wage application system that reflects productivity (25.6%).
Yang Ok-seok, head of labor policy at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, said, "We confirmed that foreign workers, through long tenure, are handling highly skilled jobs and taking root as core personnel on industrial sites," adding, "Given that small and midsize companies endure initially low productivity and high labor costs as an investment in long-term skill formation, it is necessary to fully guarantee the minimum period of employment for foreign workers."