I don't want to go home...43% of foreign students are interested in finding jobs in South Korea.

ⓒYonhap News Agency

Four out of 10 foreign students living in Korea only want to work in Korea, not their home country or third country.

According to the Ministry of Education on the 5th, a survey of a total of 1,207 international students at the "Foreign Student Job Fair" held in various parts of the country from June to October last year showed that 42.5% of respondents said they were only interested in Korean employment when asked about the country of employment plan. 45.5% of 'Korea or Home Country' and 12.0% of 'Korea or Third Country'.

When asked about the desired employment area, 55.1% cited "current residential area" and 37.2% cited "metropolitan area."

The desired employment industries were manufacturing and mining (16.1%), wholesale and retail, lodging, and food (10.0%), professional, scientific and technical services (9.8%), and public and educational services (9.5%).

Vietnam (32.6%) had the highest nationality of foreign students, followed by Uzbekistan (18.3%), China (13.1%), Mongolia (6.5%), Japan (0.8%), and the United States (0.3%).

Meanwhile, a survey of 98 companies participating in the job fair found that 57% of them said it was "difficult to hire domestic workers" because of hiring foreigners. 22% of the respondents said "for the diversity of talent within the organization" and 17% said "for the development of new overseas markets."

When asked if they have plans to expand foreign recruitment over the next five years, 65.3% of companies said they have plans to do so.

Reporter Lee Yu Na from Digital News Team.