"The current economic slowdown is hitting the job market for foreigners, as thousands of foreign workers face being laid off, the Ministry of Labor (MoL) said..", today's Korea Times wrote.

But while the S.K. gov't, i.e. the Ministry of "Justice" in collaboration with the MoL, will continue to deport undocumented migrant workers (K. Times, 12.7), the MoL "will also notify the employers of the government support funds they could receive if they replace their undocumented workers with legal domestic workers..", Korea Herald (12.7) reported.


Related articles:
More Foreign Workers Face Layoff (K. Times, 12.7)


More migrant workers change workplaces (K. Herald, 12.7)

The number of migrant workers who found new workplaces increased by 171 percent to 1,149 in October from 673 in the same month of last year, government officials said yesterday.

The increase mostly resulted from the financial difficulties experienced by their previous companies, the Labor Ministry said.

This indicates that the economic downturn here is most likely to reduce jobs, not only for the domestic workforce, but also for migrant workers who came to Korea to look for better working opportunities.

Although eight out of 10 migrant workers are hired at workplaces with less than 30 employees, those businesses are not exempt from being impacted by the sluggish economy, according to ministry officials.

In reality, the total number of businesses employing migrant workers saw a 6.6 percent drop from 44,667 in 2007 to 41,729 in 2008, ministry officials said.

Meanwhile, it has been discovered that some small and mid-sized firms are suffering from a lack of workforce as the government sent 8,000 foreign workers back to their native countries by force after it started its raid on undocumented workers in October.

The ministry plans to dispatch a support team to the areas populated with undocumented workers to find out the details on the required foreign workforce, said Lee Jae-kap, director-general of the employment policy division at the ministry.

The teams will also notify the employers of the government support funds they could receive if they replace their undocumented workers with legal domestic workers, officials said.

The ministry will grant those enterprises with 1.2 million won per case, said ministry officials, adding that the funds will only be given once per firm.

"We hope this will result in an increase of workplaces, replacing positions filled by undocumented workers with domestic workers, while securing the rights of documented foreign labor living here," Lee said.