[Missing Skilled Workers] ① [Report] "Old Han Workers Are Few"... Foreign Workers Take Over Rebar and Carpenter Positions at Construction Sites

Editor's NoteThere have been a series of construction safety accidents that are hard to understand, such as apartment parking lot collapses and rebar omission incidents. Various structural issues such as design, construction, supervision, and vested interest cartels have been pointed out as causes. There is one common denominator in these criticisms: people. Due to the negative social perception called ‘Nogada’ (manual labor), the construction industry's workforce structure has aged and experienced severe attrition. In response, visited construction sites and early morning labor markets to examine the structure of the construction industry caused by workforce attrition. We also analyzed the current status of construction technicians and explored structural problems through experts' perspectives.

At around 5 a.m. on the 6th near the Namguro Station intersection on Seoul Subway Line 7, about 600 foreign workers seeking construction jobs gathered at a nearby labor market. The densely packed space, almost without any vacancies, was filled with cigarette smoke exhaled by people wearing military-patterned sweatpants, work boots, and backpacks, along with conversations in Chinese. Despite being earlier than the usual commuting hours, traffic police were deployed to prevent vans carrying workers from parking or stopping within the intersection.

Around 5 a.m. on the 6th, foreign workers looking for construction jobs gathered at the labor market near Namguro Station in Seoul.
[Photo by Kwak Minjae]

As Korean skilled workers disappear, foreign workers are filling their places. In the past, foreign workers mainly handled low-skilled construction labor called ‘japbu’ (general laborers), but as Korean skilled workers have aged and younger generations avoid construction work, foreign workers are now filling high-skilled construction jobs such as rebar workers and form carpenters.

Jung Mo (45), a manager at a labor agency who has worked near Namguro Station for 10 years, said, “Two to three years ago, the ratio of skilled workers like form carpenters and rebar workers was about 70% Korean to 30% foreign, but now 99% are foreign workers such as Chinese-Koreans and Southeast Asians. Especially after the Serious Accident Punishment Act was enacted, the primary contractors have become more stringent in requiring medical certificates and other documents, so the preference for young foreign workers over older Koreans has grown even stronger.”

Around 5:10 a.m., traffic police were cracking down to prevent a van carrying workers from stopping or parking within the intersection.
[Photo by Kwak Minjae]

The nature of labor agencies, which earn commissions the more workers they dispatch, also favors foreign workers. Since Korean skilled workers are very few and tend to prefer working on commercial buildings or detached houses rather than apartments, the preference for foreign skilled workers accelerates. Kim Cheol (60), who has worked as a form carpenter in construction sites for 35 years, said, “Unlike individual Korean skilled workers, Chinese-Korean workers form teams of about 10 to 15 people. Labor agencies earn more money the more workers they dispatch, so 99% of the 50 to 60 labor agencies in Namguro use foreign carpenter teams.”

Many Foreign Workers Are 'Illegal'...Lack of Expertise

The problem is that most foreign skilled workers gain their construction experience for the first time in Korea and have a low understanding of blueprints and other technical documents. Kim said, “Most foreign skilled workers gathered at Namguro Station have poor skills, but labor agencies only check their ID cards and do not verify qualifications. There is a joke that here, even without a formwork certificate, if you just wear a nail pouch, you become a form carpenter expert.” A form carpenter is a profession that creates the ‘shape’ of concrete. Generally, to pour concrete that wraps around the rebar framework, formwork is needed, and the form carpenter makes various shaped molds to build architectural structures according to design blueprints.

Around 5:40 a.m., at Namguro Station labor market. Vans were lined up along the road to pick up workers for the construction site.
Photo by Kwak Minjae

Moreover, a significant portion of foreign workers on domestic construction sites are illegal workers whose qualifications are difficult to verify. According to the ‘Construction Worker Supply and Training Demand Survey’ released last year by the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association, among approximately 350,000 actual foreign construction workers in 2022, only about 32,000 were legal foreign workers. The remaining approximately 320,000 were estimated to be ‘illegal workers,’ accounting for 90.7% of the total.

On that day, Lee Mo (50), a Chinese-Korean who said he was a team leader with 30 carpenter team members heading to an apartment construction site in Incheon, introduced himself. Wearing a headscarf and a red vest labeled ‘Signalman,’ Lee said, “We have many friendly site managers, so there are many places that call us directly without going through labor agencies. We almost always wear nail pouches when we go out.”

70% of Rebar Teams Are Foreigners from Vietnam, etc...Communication Difficulties

Foreign construction workers were also frequently seen at apartment construction sites. At a cafeteria in a new apartment construction site in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, where the reporter visited, about 60 rebar team workers were having their meals. About half of them were foreigners, including Vietnamese and Chinese-Koreans. On the cafeteria wall, a notice saying ‘Please take only as much as you can eat!’ was written in both Vietnamese and Chinese, indicating the large number of foreign workers.

At around 11:30 a.m. on the 4th, foreign workers are having a meal at a restaurant in an apartment construction site in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do.
[Photo by Kwak Minjae]

Lee Mo (60), a site manager met at the apartment construction site that day, said, “In the past, Korean skilled workers left the site around age 62, but now, due to the severe shortage of workers, it is not uncommon to see them working until 65. Especially for the most physically demanding tasks like rebar work, it is difficult to proceed without foreign workers. Currently, 70% of the 50-person rebar team on site are foreigners from Vietnam, Cambodia, and other countries.”

At a restaurant in an apartment construction site in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, the notice included the message "Take only as much as you can eat!" in both Vietnamese and Chinese.
[Photo by Kwak Minjae]

He added that even if most of the construction is handled by foreign skilled workers, concerns about poor construction are low. The site manager explained, “Even if foreign skilled workers cannot read blueprints, if the formwork deputy chief marks the blueprints, the foreign workers follow the instructions exactly, so there is little chance of problems. Among foreigners from Vietnam and elsewhere, some speak Korean well, so indirect communication is possible through them.”

However, when the reporter tried to communicate with a rebar team composed of Vietnamese workers, even simple communication was impossible. When asking Bandai (25), a Vietnamese worker who had just finished eating, “Hello. How do you receive rebar work instructions?” he replied, “또 콩 테 노이 티엥 한 (I can’t speak Korean).” He did not understand even basic greetings like ‘Hello’ or construction terms like ‘rebar.’ The 7 to 8 Vietnamese workers who finished eating with Bandai spoke only Vietnamese among themselves, and no one understood Korean.

Around 12:10 PM, Vietnamese rebar team workers were assembling rebar. Only Vietnamese could be heard, and no Korean instructions or supervision were audible.
[Photo by Kwak Minjae]

The construction site was busy building an apartment complex with eight buildings and over 800 households. At around 12:10 p.m., the Vietnamese rebar team finished their meal and returned to the apartment construction site to start rebar assembly work. Wearing blue safety helmets and work clothes, they held hooks and binding wires in both hands, connecting rebar one by one. However, there was no sign of a Korean foreman supervising the site. Only the voices of Vietnamese workers talking among themselves could be heard, with no Korean instructions or supervision regarding the rebar work.

"Chronic Labor Shortage...Need to Increase Utilization of Foreign Skilled Workers"

However, amid the chronic labor shortage at construction sites, it is inevitable to utilize foreign workers to fill the shortage. The Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association projected that out of the estimated 1.76 million labor demand at domestic construction sites in 2023, only about 1.61 million will be supplied by domestic workers. This means a shortage of about 150,000 workers compared to construction demand.

Experts point out the need to seek effective ways to utilize foreign skilled workers, a practical alternative for construction sites. Professor Choi Myung-gi of the Korea Industrial Field Professors Group said, “As Korean skilled workers age and multi-tier subcontracting reduces construction costs, the ability to pay wages weakens, leading to increased input of low-skilled foreign workers and more poor construction and defects. Structural contradictions such as illegal multi-tier subcontracting and unreasonable construction deadlines must be resolved, and systematic management systems for foreign workers, including strengthening skilled worker training, must be established to prevent poor construction at sites.”