57.5% Of Daegu Firms Say Foreign Workers Are More Productive Than Koreans... Daegu Conducts Labor Conditions Survey

Survey of 205 Businesses and 224 Workers
Developing Tailored Policies Based on the Findings

The Daegu Metropolitan City Government announced on the 18th that it had conducted a "Survey on the Employment and Labor Conditions of Foreign Workers" to respond to labor shortages in industrial worksites and to support the local settlement of foreign workers. The city plans to use the survey results as a basis for developing tailored policies.

This survey was conducted by the professional research agency Research Korea Co., Ltd. using structured questionnaires through both face-to-face and online methods from October to December 2025. A total of 205 local businesses, 224 foreign workers, and 303 international students participated.

Daegu City Hall Sanggyeok Office

Among the businesses that took part in the survey, 93.2% of foreign workers were employed in production jobs, accounting for the overwhelming majority. The greatest advantage of hiring foreign workers was cited as alleviating recruitment difficulties (71.7%). The main challenges in the hiring process were language and communication issues (58.5%) and complicated administrative procedures (57.1%). A total of 57.5% of respondents evaluated the productivity of foreign workers as higher than that of domestic workers, and 52.2% expressed an intention to continue employing them, both exceeding half.

Among foreign workers, 90.2% held the Non-professional Employment (E-9) visa status, and 67.4% had worked for less than three years. An overwhelming 98.2% were employed in the manufacturing sector. The main difficulties in the job-seeking process were language barriers (27.7%), restrictions related to visas and residence status (26.8%), and lack of job information (20.5%). Notably, 81.7% of respondents stated that they were willing to live in Daegu if they could obtain a long-term stay visa, indicating strong demand for local settlement.

Among international students, 47.2% expressed a willingness to live and work in Daegu, while 42.9% responded that they were "not sure." The main difficulties in preparing for employment were language issues (49.2%), visa and residence problems (39.9%), restrictions on foreign recruitment by companies (37.6%), and lack of information (29.4%). This suggests that if policy support such as providing employment information and improving visa systems is implemented in parallel, there is considerable potential for them to settle in the region.

Businesses, foreign workers, and international students who participated in the survey all commonly cited language and communication problems, complicated administrative and visa procedures, and a lack of local employment information as their greatest difficulties. This indicates that, beyond simply improving working conditions, there is a need for a comprehensive administrative support system that encompasses the simplification of visa and administrative procedures, the provision of employment information, and the improvement of the living environment.

Park Kihwan, Director General of Economic Affairs at the Daegu Metropolitan City Government, said, "Through this survey, we have specifically identified the demand for foreign worker policies needed in the region," adding, "Based on the survey results, we will systematically design tailored policies, such as the Skilled Worker Recommendation System, to support the local settlement of foreign workers and their connection to industrial worksites."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.