The hiring of foreign nationals will be further expanded in Korea’s labor-intensive industries, beginning next year, the government said Friday, finalizing a plan to bring in an all-time high of 165,000 non-professional migrant workers in 2024 to tackle growing labor shortages.

Hotels, condos and restaurants, among others, will be newly allowed to employ the foreign workers arriving here with non-professional employment visas (E-9) under the Employment Permit System, the government said after a meeting of the Foreign Workers Policy Committee.

Under the decision, for instance, hotels and condos in Seoul, Busan, Gangwon Province and the southern resort island of Jeju plan to hire foreign workers as cleaners and kitchen assistants on a pilot basis next year, the government said.

The hospitality industries have complained about labor shortages, saying they cannot find people to hire despite the recovery in the number of tourists.

In addition, the number of E-9 visa holders working in local nursing facilities and as domestic helpers will be steadily increased, according to the government, which already announced last month that the industries in which the E-9 visa holders can work will be expanded to include the restaurant, mining and forestry sectors in 2024.

The Employment Permit System was introduced in 2004 to allow small and medium-sized businesses facing a manpower shortage to legally hire foreign workers. They have taken jobs shunned by Koreans, such as in agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, construction and the so-called 3D (dirty, difficult and dangerous) sectors. But the steady decline in the nation’s working age population has increased the presence of foreign workers in a growing number of labor-intensive industries.

The government also decided to designate Tajikistan as the 17th labor-sending country under the Employment Permit System. Since 2015, 16 countries, including the Philippines, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand and Uzbekistan, have sent labor here under the system.

The government said it will designate additional labor-sending countries after receiving applications from aspirants.

The hiring of foreign caregivers will also increase at local nursing homes and care centers, as the welfare ministry plans to provide permanent residency-related incentives to foreigners who hold the D-10 job seeker visa and work at local nursing facilities for more than two years. The ministry estimates that there are about 3,000 D-10 visa holders who graduated from health and welfare-related university departments.

In accordance with the government policy, the Seoul city government said it plans to start arranging the hiring of about 100 foreigners as domestic helpers for households in the capital this month. (Yonhap)