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Historically, Korea has had more labor disputes than any other country in Asia over the last 25 years. Westerners have often seen Korean workers on strike on the TV news channels. However, in 2010, Korea had the lowest number of labor disputes since the IMF bail-out in 1997. There were only 86 labor disputes in Korea in 2010 compared to 121 in 2009.

Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) attributes the decrease to a greater number of “rational bargaining practices.” In other words, employers and workers cooperated to compromise, which helped decrease the number of strikes.

Of the labor disputes that did occur, approximately half were related to the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU). Other enterprises, such as manufacturing, experienced a decrease in the number of labor disputes.

Only 12 of the total 86 labor disputes in 2010 involved foreign-invested establishments in Korea. This was a significant decrease from the 22 foreign-invested labor disputes that occurred in 2009.

Employment in Korea appears relatively stable, and this assessment is further supported by the fact that the unemployment rate in Korea remained at a low 3.3% towards the end of 2010. Furthermore, the number of jobs continued to increase throughout 2010. A total of 455,000 more people were employed in 2010 compared to 2009. Most of these new jobs were in manufacturing and healthcare.