South Korea to hire more foreign workers, relax qualification requirements

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs's department of overseas labor announced recently that the South Korean government has decided to increase the quota of foreign workers to a maximum of 20%, which means a business could have migrant workers making up 20% of its total workers.

The migrant workers are recruited by technical industries, especially shipbuilding.

Employment conditions are also set to be relaxed, with fresh college graduates exempted from the need to have prior experience.

According to the department, Vietnamese workers in South Korea earn up to US$1,800 a month.

They mainly work aboard fishing vessels or in agriculture and fisheries.

More than 600,000 Vietnamese work in 50 countries and territories, including 250,000 in Japan, 230,000 in Taiwan and 40,000 in South Korea.