Nearly three out of 10 foreign employees in Korea worked 50 hours or longer per week last year, data showed on Wednesday (April 17, 2024).
A total of 1.43 million foreigners aged 15 and older resided in Korea as of May 2023, and 64.5% of them have a job here, according to Statistics Korea.
Of the foreign workers, 56.5%, the largest share, were found to have worked 40 to 50 hours per week, and 28.6% said their weekly working hours came to 50.
Some 50.6% of all the foreign employees here earned 2 million won ($1,443) to 3 million won per month, and 35.8% of them had more than 3 million won of monthly income.
Six out of every 10 foreign income labourers here voiced satisfaction with their jobs in Korea.
About 12.3% of them said they wanted to change their jobs, and they cited low income as a primary reason.
Around 31.8% of the total foreigners in Korea remained economically inactive, and 3.7% were unemployed while seeking a job.
Of the total foreigners residing in Korea for more than three months, ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality accounted for 33% of the total, the largest share, and those from Vietnam took up 14.1%.
The proportion of foreigners from non-Asian countries came to 9.7%.
Some 386,000 individuals of the total foreigners were overseas Koreans, and 269,000 stayed here for employment in non-professional areas, the data showed. – Yonhap
