SOUTH Korea is looking at legalising the hiring of foreign nationals as domestic workers and is currently conducting research into the issue.
The Ministry of Employment and Labour said it recently told the Korea Employment Welfare Pension Institute to research on exploring ways of opening the housekeeper market to foreign nationals.
Under the current laws, only Koreans and ethnic Koreans from China, in addition to foreigners with permanent residence status or those married to Koreans, can be employed as domestic workers in the country.
According to a Korea Times report, the ministry's move comes amid rising demand for domestic workers who can offer childcare or other housework services, especially amidst the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic.
Job portal operator Mediawill Networks said the number of job ads for domestic workers has increased sharply by 322 per cent between February last year and January this year, compared with the year before.
Statistics Korea's data also shows a serious supply shortage, as the number of working couple households nationwide was estimated at 5.05 million last year, while the number of people working as housekeepers was estimated at only about 150,000 to 400,000.
The imbalance between supply and demand has led to an increase in costs.
There is a 23.1 per cent price increase in costs for domestic helpers although the consumer price index rose by only about 5.4 per cent.
The supply shortage has worsened as more Korean people in their 30s to 40s tend to be reluctant to work as domestic workers while the pandemic has also significantly reduced the number of ethnic Koreans arriving from China.
A Ministry official said they have begun considering foreign nationals to work as domestic workers as it has recognised the seriousness of the situation, which has the potential to exert an adverse influence on falling birthrates and women's career development.
A United Nations report has already said that South Korea has the lowest birthrate in the world this year.
The official said that the study began in March and will be completed in November.
It will focus on analysing overseas cases and study detailed mechanism.
The ministry said the government will only decide whether to legalise the hiring of foreign nationals as domestic workers, after a new Bill aimed at improving the working conditions of domestic workers is enacted.
The new Bill will only be put to vote this month and if approved, the law will take effect after a year.
It is designed to bring some 600,000 domestic workers in the country into the law's purview as regular workers.
They can then be categorised as wage workers with guaranteed annual paid leave, severance pay and four major types of insurance.
The government also hopes the law will improve the working conditions of existing domestic workers and eventually resolve the supply shortage, reducing the need to open the market to foreign nationals.
The official said the ministry would make a decision about the employment of foreign nationals as domestic workers if the supply shortage continues even after the law is implemented.
Some experts say that opening the housekeeper market to foreign nationals is expected to help boost women's economic activities and raise birthrates to some extent.