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By Lee Kyung-min
Almost nine out of 10 foreign nationals in Korea without permanent residency want to extend their stay, government data showed Tuesday.
Data from Statistics Korea showed that 88.2 percent of foreign nationals without F-5 visas said that they wanted to continue to remain in Korea as of May, up 1.7 percent from the previous year.
They wanted to do so by extending their current visas (53.6 percent), followed by acquiring permanent residency (14.6 percent) and acquiring Korean nationality (11.1 percent).
The data also showed that the number of residents of foreign nationality stood at over 1.33 million, similar to the figure last year.
The number of employed foreign nationals was 855,300, up about 7,000 from a year ago. This marks the first increase since 2018, when the number of employed foreign nationals stood at 884,300.
This year's increase is attributable to a rebound in the overall number of workers in the country due to a partial recovery in the labor market from last year's rapid job losses.
"Many people were unable to find job opportunities due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the situation is showing signs of improvement," a statistics agency official said during a briefing at the Sejong Government Complex.
The construction industry added the most jobs for foreign nationals, or 17,000, up 19.4 percent from a year earlier, followed by the agriculture, forestry and fishery industries, which added a combined 4,000 jobs, up 7.2 percent from the year before.
The manufacturing industry shed 9,000 jobs, down 2.4 percent from a year earlier, followed by wholesale and retail, as well as hospitality, which lost a combined 3,000 jobs, down 1.7 percent from the year before.
Over half, or 52.2 percent of foreign workers, received a monthly pay of between 2 million won ($1,677) and 3 million won. Those earning more than 3 million won accounted for 21.9 percent of the total. About 21.5 percent received between 1 million and 2 million won. Less than five percent, or 4.4 percent, earned under 1 million won.
Almost two-thirds of the workers of foreign nationality in Korea were satisfied with their jobs. Those who said they were "very satisfied" with their jobs accounted for 21.2 percent, and some 38.9 percent said that they were "somewhat satisfied." About 35.6 percent said that they were neutral. Those who said they were "slightly dissatisfied" and "very dissatisfied" amounted to 3.9 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
Over one in seven of those surveyed said their pay is higher in Korea than in their country of origin. Some 18.4 percent said their pay level is similar, while some 7.8 percent said their pay is lower in Korea.
The survey showed that 13.8 percent of foreign nationals have experienced economic difficulties over the past year.
Over one-third, or 37.8 percent, said they did not seek medical services due to fears of high costs. Over a quarter, or 25.2 percent, said they were late paying their utility bills.
Less than a third, or 29.8 percent, subscribed to the state-run National Pension Service, whereas 91.6 percent were subscribers of the state-run National Health Insurance Service.
Among foreign nationals with children under 18, over one-third, or 34.3 percent, experienced difficulties educating their children, mainly in helping them with their homework (18.8 percent) and other issues related to school (12.6 percent).
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