Banks saw 1,200 employees leave in Q1, but new recruitment remains 'minimal'

Increase in Executives and Decrease in Staff at Commercial Banks

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi]As digital and non-face-to-face services expand in the banking sector, the number of offline branches has decreased, leading to over 1,200 employees leaving six major commercial banks in the first quarter alone this year. While retirements have increased, there has been almost no hiring of new employees. Only occasional recruitment focused on experienced professionals in digital and ICT fields is taking place.

According to the Bank Statistical Information System of the Korea Federation of Banks on the 4th, the total number of employees at six major commercial banks?KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, SC, and Citi?stood at 66,317 at the end of the first quarter, down by 1,244 from 67,561 at the end of last year. With a strong wave of voluntary retirements sweeping the banking sector at year-end, 1,244 jobs disappeared within three months. During this period, the number of executives slightly increased from 202 to 205, but the number of regular employees significantly decreased from 67,359 to 66,112.

The number of employees at commercial banks has been declining year by year amid the trend of reducing offline branches. At the end of 2018, the number of employees at commercial banks was 69,638, which decreased to 69,131 at the end of 2019 and 67,561 at the end of 2020, showing a continuous downward trend. Even looking at just the first quarter, the total number of employees decreased by 2,248 compared to a year ago.

On the other hand, the door for new graduate recruitment is narrowing. Although a ‘Financial Sector Joint Recruitment Fair’ will be held online in a non-face-to-face format over two days on August 25 and 26, giving the appearance that new recruitment is open, four major commercial banks?Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, and Woori?that usually hire large numbers of new employees have not yet conducted their first-half new employee recruitment. They have either postponed the schedule to the second half or have not yet finalized their hiring plans.

Instead of large-scale new graduate recruitment, banks are shifting their hiring methods to recruit experts in digital and ICT fields on an as-needed basis. This is because the number of offline branches in the banking sector is steadily decreasing, and as digital and non-face-to-face services expand, the type of talent banks require is also changing.

Woori Bank conducted recruitment last month for a double-digit number of new employees in the digital and IT sectors to cultivate core digital talent. They introduced a new selection process that includes a written test composed of finance and digital trends and a ‘Digital Insight Interview’ that comprehensively evaluates data analysis skills and logical thinking. Although there is no distinction by major, this reflects the bank’s intention to select talent with digital literacy. KB Kookmin Bank is also conducting professional recruitment on an as-needed basis in IT development areas such as cloud services and mobile platforms, and Shinhan Bank is only conducting as-needed recruitment in digital and ICT fields in the first half of the year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.