Korean Bill Would Make Firms Report AI Layoffs

A South Korean lawmaker wants companies to tell the government when artificial intelligence costs people their jobs. Yoon Jong-gun of the Democratic Party filed amendments on 21 October that would require employers to report mass dismissals caused by AI or automation, and the labour ministry to publish quarterly statistics on them, JoongAng Ilbo reports.

The proposals are bills, not law. JoongAng, which says the measure has been dubbed the “AI layoff notification act”, gives no timetable for a vote and reports no response from the government. The bills arrive as companies speed up their adoption of AI, the paper says, and are meant to let the government see and respond to the job losses that follow.

What the bills would require

Under Article 24 of the Labour Standards Act, an employer planning to dismiss more than a set number of staff for business reasons must already report the reasons, the numbers and its consultation with workers to the Minister of Employment and Labour. Employers have no duty to say that AI was the reason, JoongAng notes.

Yoon’s amendment adds a clause requiring a report where dismissals are “wholly or substantially” attributable to bringing in or expanding AI, automation or other technologies, with the technologies to be defined by presidential decree. The ministry would compile the reports every quarter and publish statistics broken down by workplace size, region, occupation and type of AI, according to JoongAng.

A second amendment, to the Framework Act on Employment Policy, targets voluntary and early-retirement programmes, which companies often use instead of outright dismissals. Reports of large-scale workforce changes would have to name AI as a cause where it applies.

In a press release cited by JoongAng, Yoon said the government’s 9 July plan for job stability during industrial transition promised a Korean AI exposure index and a “canary dashboard” to track AI’s effect on jobs, but no way for companies to report why they dismiss staff. “Right now we cannot know whose jobs AI is replacing, or by how much,” he said, in TSN’s translation. “This is not about blocking AI adoption, but about society preparing together so that the costs of the technology transition are not placed on workers alone.”

The gap Yoon describes is familiar elsewhere. When Kroger announced plans to cut about 3,000 corporate roles, it was Reuters that tied the cuts to AI; the chief executive’s own reported wording was more general.

Survey data and US precedents

JoongAng links the bill to new survey data. It reports that a National Bureau of Economic Research paper published on 21 October, whose authors include Oh Sam-il of the Bank of Korea and Stanford economist Nick Bloom, found that 89% of Korean firms use AI, second only to the US at 95%. According to JoongAng’s account, 54% of Korean executives surveyed expect AI to cut jobs at their companies within three years, nearly double the 28% average across the other seven countries in the study.

Two US states already ask employers about AI when they announce mass layoffs. From 1 October 2026, Connecticut employers filing federal WARN Act notices must tell the state labour department whether the layoffs are related to AI or other technological change, according to law firm Nixon Peabody. California’s SB 951, which TSN covered when it was signed, takes effect on 1 January 2027. It does not create a new notice duty but adds AI disclosures to existing 60-day layoff notices, which must open with the line “This notice is for a technology displacement”, Sullivan & Cromwell explains. California’s employment department will publish quarterly statewide summaries.

Lee Jae-sung, an AI professor at Chung-Ang University, told JoongAng that industry recognises the need to manage AI’s effect on jobs, and that Korea is “far behind” the US and Europe in responding.