Labor Ministry releases annual report on construction workers

The Ministry of Employment and Labor released the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association's 2025 annual report on Aug. 5, showing retirement mutual-aid enrollment fell by about 190,000, or 11.2 percent, to 1.49 million workers, according to a ministry press release.

Published annually, the report sets out the association's performance during the preceding year, including its retirement mutual-aid program, asset management, employment and welfare operations, and statistical analysis of related data from its own database; its main programs include retirement mutual aid for construction workers' later-life stability, welfare services, the electronic-card system and job-training support.

Retirement mutual-aid payouts moved differently: recipients fell by about 5,000, or 1.4 percent, to 324,000 year on year, but the total paid rose 8.3 percent and the average payment per worker increased 9.9 percent.

Over the year, the association offered interest-free living-stability loans to more than 80,000 workers, supported group-insurance enrollment for 99,000 people and provided free comprehensive health screenings to 14,000, while more than 20,000 workers received marriage and childbirth payments. The measures were intended to strengthen construction workers' living stability and welfare.

The association also worked to stabilize the electronic-card system after it was expanded fully in 2024, an effort that helped prevent missed retirement mutual-aid payments and curb wage arrears. For 2026, it plans a research project to build a construction-worker labor supply-and-demand forecasting model and a survey of construction workers' conditions.