Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Indonesian migrant workers in South Korea, previously laid off due to the global economic downturn, have managed to find new jobs and thus postpone an early return home, an official at the South Korean Embassy in Jakarta said Tuesday.

"There has been concern about massive layoffs in South Korea, but the fact is the employment situation in South Korea is very stable," said Ha Hyeong-so, the embassy's labor attache.

Thousands of Indonesian migrant workers in Korea had reportedly been laid off last year as companies cut costs to cope with the crisis, according to Migrant Care, an Indonesian NGO. It said this was part of a global trend that also painted a bleak future for Indonesian workers in other countries, such as Taiwan and Malaysia.

The statistics issued by the South Korean Manpower Ministry, however, revealed that 90 to 97 percent of the retrenched Indonesian workers had successfully got other jobs within a two-month job-seeking period.

About 500 Indonesians apply for new jobs in South Korea each month, and from July last year to May this year only 164 Indonesians returned to home after failing to get new jobs. In the last three months, the statistics show, the condition has been improving significantly, with the re-employment rate reaching 100 percent.

Ha said demand by Korean employers for foreign workers was currently higher than the supply, with only 4,800 foreign jobseekers to fill about 15,000 vacancies. "The employment condition for foreign workers does not seem to be insecure," he said.

According to the South Korean Labor Ministry, there are currently 23,000 Indonesian workers out of the 300,000 foreign workers in the country. South Korean laws do not differentiate between the rights of migrant and local workers.