Held in Melbourne and Sydney on the 20th and 21st
Rising Demand for Korean Talent in K-Food and Consumer Goods
Over 50 Companies and 210 Young Job Seekers Participated
With the Korean Wave, which began with K-pop and dramas, now spreading to K-food and the broader consumer goods sector, demand among foreign companies for hiring Korean talent is rapidly increasing. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced on the 23rd that it had held the “2026 Australia Job Fair” in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia on the 20th and 21st (local time), supporting Korean youths in their overseas job search.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held the “2026 Australia Job Fair” on the 20th and 21st (local time) in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The photo shows the one-on-one job matching and recruitment interview scene held in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by KOTRA
The job fair was attended by approximately 50 Australian local companies and local subsidiaries of Korean firms, along with about 210 young job seekers. On site, both online and offline recruitment interviews as well as one-on-one legal consultations on visas and employment contracts were conducted.
Notably, about half of the 40 or so recruitment categories registered for the Melbourne fair focused on food manufacturing, distribution, and food service sectors, including bakery jobs. A total of 24 Australian local companies participated, including Danford College, Hyatt Place Melbourne, and The Library Bakery. At the Sydney fair, companies such as CJ Food, Daesang, POSCO, and GoMaps Trading were among 28 participating businesses, recruiting talent across 54 fields in total.
A representative from a local company said, “As interest in K-food and Korean-style desserts rises, the demand for talent familiar with these trends is growing in Australia. Through this job fair, we were able to directly assess applicants’ experience and capabilities that are hard to verify from just a resume, which greatly helped in finding suitable candidates.”
Currently, Australia is facing intensified job competition due to high interest rates and inflation; however, demand for skilled technical workers and talented Koreans continues to rise. In particular, as of July 1, the Australian government has significantly expanded the eligible age for the working holiday visa for Koreans from 30 to 35, lowering the entry barriers for young people in their early to mid-30s into the Australian job market.
Through its K-Move initiative, KOTRA plans to expand locally tailored overseas employment support programs following this job fair in Australia, to Vietnam in October and Singapore in November.
Ko Bonkyung, Director-General of the Southeast Asia and Oceania Headquarters at KOTRA, said, “With the growing popularity of K-culture and consumer goods across countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, we are witnessing a clear increase in companies’ demand for related talent. We will actively support young people so they can find quality jobs overseas and use these experiences for career development.”
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