Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on April 10 delivers the opening speech at a ministerial meeting on national affairs at Government-Complex Seoul. (Office for Government Policy Coordination-Prime Minister's Secretariat)

By Jeon Misun 

The easing of restrictions on foreign workers switching jobs outside of the Seoul metropolitan area seeks to alleviate labor shortages in non-metropolitan cities and regions.

This will allow such laborers in the Greater Seoul area to freely move to other provinces while changing jobs.

A meeting of ministers for national affairs chaired by Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced this on April 10 at Government-Complex Seoul as part of measures to improve livelihood regulations for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs.

Foreign laborers had been allowed to change workplaces only within the region where they got their initial work permits and could not freely pursue jobs in the five designated regions: the Seoul metropolitan area, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, the provinces of Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gangwon-do, Jeolla-do provinces and Jeju Island, and Chungcheong-do provinces.

The ban on transfers from the Greater Seoul area to other regions led to the worsening of labor shortages in provincial areas.

To alleviate the problem, the government decided to allow foreign staff to move from the Seoul area to outside the capital region and between non-metropolitan locations. The ban on transferring from a non-metropolitan area to the capital region, however, was retained.

msjeon22@korea.kr