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- Employment Permit (E-9): 130,000, Seasonal Work (E-8): 75,000, etc. -
- Reflecting industry-specific supply and demand forecasts, demand survey results, and next year's economic outlook -
The government held the Foreign Workforce Integrated Policy Council meeting on December 20 (Friday), chaired by State Affairs Coordinator Bang Ki-seon, and decided to introduce 207,000 non-professional foreign workers in 2025.
In response to the growing need for systematic and integrated management of foreign workforce utilization to address recent labor shortages in industrial sites, the government announced the "Rational Management Plan for Foreign Workers" on June 20 this year. Previously, introduction quotas were calculated separately by visa-issuing ministries, but this has been improved by establishing a system to coordinate the total introduction quota for non-professional foreign workers, including Employment Permit (E-9), Seasonal Work (E-8), and Seafarer Employment (E-10).
Accordingly, since September, supply and demand forecasts for foreign workers by industry—such as agriculture and livestock, fisheries, and manufacturing—have been conducted by field-specific expert institutions and relevant ministries. Based on this, proposed workforce scales by visa type were prepared, and today's Foreign Workforce Integrated Policy Council meeting discussed the 2025 non-professional workforce introduction total quota.
The introduction quota sets an upper limit (ceiling) on the workforce scale to allow employers to introduce and utilize foreign workers anytime according to on-site demand. The 2025 introduction quota for non-professional foreign workers (E-8 to E-10) is set at 207,000 in total.
By visa type, for Employment Permit (E-9), considering workforce shortage projections, economic outlook, external conditions, and demand survey results from businesses and relevant ministries, it was decided at 130,000, a decrease of 35,000 from this year.
Meanwhile, for Seasonal Work (E-8), considering local government demand survey results and rural population decline, the introduction scale was set at 75,000, an increase of 7,000 from this year. However, Seafarer Employment (E-10), which operates under a total quota system, is expected to have around 2,100 entrants next year.
* Employment Permit (E-9): ('24) 165,000 → ('25) 130,000 (-35,000, -21.1%)
Seasonal Work (E-8): ('24) 68,000 → ('25) 75,000 (+7,000, +10.3%)
※ For Seafarer Employment, it operates under a total quota system (23,300 in '24), and will be finalized through labor-management consultations, etc.
Based on the total non-professional foreign workforce discussed today, relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Employment and Labor, and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will finalize the 2025 visa-specific introduction scales through consultations with related institutions and establish and implement operation plans.
Following this meeting, the 45th Foreign Workforce Policy Committee (Chair: State Affairs Coordinator Bang Ki-seon) was held, and the 2025 Foreign Workforce (E-9) Introduction and Operation Plan (draft) was reviewed and approved.