SEOUL, October 26 (AJP) — Young South Koreans are struggling to enter stable employment even as factories and construction sites turn increasingly to foreign workers, exposing a widening gap between the jobs young people seek and the workers employers need.
Central bank and government data point to two pressures developing side by side: a narrowing route into regular employment for young Koreans and persistent labor shortages in parts of the economy.
A Bank of Korea study released Monday found that the rate at which people aged 15 to 29 enter permanent employment, measured relative to workers aged 30 to 59, has fallen by about 15 to 20 percent from past levels.
Among 25- to 29-year-olds who had graduated from or left school, the adjusted number entering their first permanent job fell to 45 per 1,000 in 2023–26 from 48 in 2014–19. For those with previous work experience, the figure rose to 121 per 1,000 from 102.
The researchers linked the divergence partly to employers’ growing preference for experienced hires, making it harder for young people to secure the first job that would give them that experience.
The number of nonregular workers increased by 103,000 from a year earlier in August, accounting for 38.5 percent of the wage workforce, while regular employment grew by just 10,000.
Temporary workers increased by 187,000 to 6.04 million, while part-time workers rose by 152,000 to 4.38 million. The categories overlap.
A Korea Labor Institute study suggests the problem extends beyond the number of available jobs to the types of work on offer.
Kim Ki-hong, an associate research fellow at the institute, identified occupational mismatch as the largest source of mismatch unemployment among young people. Applicants outnumbered openings in management, office, finance and insurance work, while construction and mining faced shortages.
Employment services tend to focus on “where young people want to work” rather than “where young workers are needed,” Kim wrote.
He called for better information and training to help jobseekers move between occupations, alongside improved working conditions at small and medium-sized companies and in blue-collar jobs.
Employers in industries struggling to recruit domestic workers are increasingly drawing on foreign labor.
The latest annual survey by the Ministry of Data and Statistics showed that 1.109 million foreign nationals were employed in May 2025, up 99,000 from a year earlier. Their employment-to-population ratio stood at 65.5 percent.
Mining and manufacturing employed 498,000 foreign workers, an increase of 37,000. Wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services added 35,000, bringing their total to 226,000.
The longer-term shift is also evident in construction.
Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association figures showed that 229,541 foreign nationals worked at construction sites at least once in 2024, representing 14.7 percent of workers covered by the tally, up from 11.8 percent in 2020.
Among foreign construction workers whose nationality was identified, 83.7 percent were ethnic Koreans from China.
At a demolition site in central Seoul, an official said the change was visible among workers arriving through staffing agencies and job advertisements.
“These days, most of the people coming through staffing agencies or job postings are Korean-Chinese or Koryo-in,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Koryo-in are ethnic Koreans from former Soviet states.
“Outside of China, we see a lot coming from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.”
Lower labor costs remained a consideration, the official said, although the wage gap had narrowed considerably in construction and manufacturing.
“It is still true to some extent that they cost less, but foreign workers in construction and manufacturing are not being paid as little as they used to be,” he said.
Government figures show that 50.2 percent of foreign wage earners received between 2 million won and 3 million won a month, while 36.9 percent earned at least 3 million won.
Those figures cannot be directly compared with average Korean wages without accounting for differences in occupation, industry, working hours, skills and employment status.
The reliance on migrant labor is also reshaping industrial communities such as Gimhae, near Busan.
Among foreign nationals, those classified as foreign workers accounted for 37.8 percent. Ethnic Koreans holding foreign citizenship made up 13.7 percent, marriage migrants 6.8 percent and international students 6.1 percent. Other foreign nationals accounted for 35.5 percent. These administrative categories do not identify everyone who may be working.
The concentration is particularly pronounced near industrial areas. Foreign nationals accounted for 39.1 percent of residents in Jillye-myeon and 36.8 percent in Hallim-myeon in November 2025, local registration data showed.
The city is home to 4,605 multicultural households comprising 13,214 people as of November 2025.
A separate Korea Labor Institute study found that manufacturing, construction, agriculture, fisheries and some service industries already struggle to meet demand with domestic workers alone.
Its researchers called for foreign labor policy to reflect longer-term differences in demand across industries and occupations, rather than relying mainly on short-term responses to shortages.
The changes are unfolding against a broader demographic shift.
Census figures released Monday showed that South Korea’s population with a migrant background reached 2.81 million in 2025, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier.
People aged 15 to 64 accounted for 81.9 percent of that population, compared with 69.2 percent nationwide. The census measures residency, however, and does not establish how many are employed.
Together, the findings reveal a labor market in which weak job prospects and worker shortages coexist. Young Koreans face a growing bottleneck at the entrance to stable careers, while employers elsewhere struggle to fill vacancies.
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