Faced with the increasingly severe labor shortage problem, Samsung Heavy Industries “asked for help” from the landlocked country of Uzbekistan and urgently recruited 80 electrical technicians to ease the manpower pressure at its Geoje Shipyard and improve production efficiency.
The recruitment is said to be based on a recruitment agreement reached between Samsung Heavy Industries and Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Employment and Poverty Alleviation at the end of last year. At that time, it was agreed that Samsung Heavy Industries would recruit up to 800 specialized shipbuilding workers in Uzbekistan in 2025.
It is understood that Samsung Heavy Industries’ requirements for the candidates for this time are that they should be between the ages of 22 and 35, must hold a degree in a related field and have at least one year of work experience.
Samsung Heavy Industries will conduct interviews and other recruitment selections from the 4th to the 7th of next month, and the first 40 applicants who pass the test will travel to Korea in June. These foreign employees will be given multiple-entry E-7 visas, with which they can work in Korea for three years and travel freely to and from Korea during their employment.
In recent years, the number of orders received by Korean shipbuilders has increased rapidly, and production problems caused by insufficient manpower have become increasingly prominent. Introducing foreign workers has become an important measure for Korean shipyards to solve their difficulties. The three major Korean shipbuilding giants HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries have employed more than 1,000 foreign workers.
South Korean shipbuilders previously recruited workers mainly from Vietnam and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, but have now expanded to landlocked Central Asian countries. Currently, about 20% of workers in South Korean shipyards are foreign workers, and the proportion of foreign workers in newly recruited workers is close to 80%.
South Korean shipbuilders are keen to recruit people overseas. In addition to the shortage of domestic labor, the low cost of overseas labor is also an important factor.
Taking this recruitment of electrical technicians by Samsung Heavy Industries in Uzbekistan as an example, Samsung Heavy Industries offers a starting monthly salary of $1,720. In comparison, the average annual salary of Korean employees of Samsung Heavy Industries in 2023 is about 65,000 dollars, which translates into a monthly salary of nearly 5,528 dollars. The labor cost of foreign employees is less than one-third of that of national employees, and the shipbuilder can significantly reduce labor costs.
On the other hand, as a lower-middle-income country, Uzbekistan’s national average monthly salary in 2024 was only $423 (data from Uzbekistan’s State Statistics Agency), and the salary offered by Samsung Heavy Industries is already at a high level of pay, which makes it quite attractive to applicants.