Will the Shipbuilding Industry's Labor Shortage Ease? 2,000 Foreign Workers to Be Deployed This Month

Government "Visa Screening Shortened... Actively Resolving Manpower Shortage"

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] About 2,000 foreign workers will be deployed to domestic shipbuilding sites this month.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that approximately 2,000 foreign workers holding E-7 (skilled professionals) and E-9 (non-professional employment) visas will be deployed to domestic shipbuilding sites this month. This is the result of institutional improvements pursued by the government to resolve labor shortages in the shipbuilding industry, including abolishing quotas for welders and painters and temporarily increasing the E-7 introduction rate from the existing 20% to 30%. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Justice also expanded personnel dedicated to visa screening after announcing the 'Measures to Resolve Difficulties in Introducing Foreign Workers' earlier last month.

Specifically, since the private direct employment system was implemented in April last year until the end of January this year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy completed 2,257 E-7 employment recommendations. During the same period, the Ministry of Justice completed visa screenings for 1,798 cases. For the low-skilled E-9 workers, visa screenings for 1,047 people were conducted last month alone.

The government plans to maintain the time required for visa-related administrative procedures within one month going forward. A government official explained, "The employment recommendation period by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the visa screening period by the Ministry of Justice have been significantly shortened," adding, "The backlog of visa screening cases and new applications have practically all been resolved."

To alleviate labor shortages in the shipbuilding industry, the government also exempted the obligation to submit career certificates. Previously, foreign welders in the shipbuilding sector had to submit certificates and career documents to undergo visa screening. However, reflecting the industry's requests, the government decided to exempt the obligation to submit career certificates for two years starting from the 31st of last month. The government plans to review the validity of this exemption after two years.

The government will also promote shipbuilding employment briefing sessions. First, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will launch the 'Regional Shipbuilding Workforce Training Project' starting from the 6th. This project provides shipbuilding technical education to 2,000 domestic job seekers and supports employment linkage and hiring subsidies in the shipbuilding industry. Job seekers will receive a total of 3.6 million KRW in education fees and hiring subsidies over six months.

From this month, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will also hold briefing sessions to match job seekers with shipbuilding employers. The government will directly visit universities with many foreign students to guide them on the shipbuilding visa special system and support employment linkage.

In addition, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy established 'Shipbuilding Site Difficulty Desks' in some regions such as Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam at the end of last month. A ministry official said, "We will strive to actively resolve labor issues by further identifying difficulties at shipbuilding sites."