Good News for Finance Job Seekers... Shinbo, Su-eun, and Others Open Recruitment Doors in the Second Half (Comprehensive)

Shinbo, KDB, and KEXIM to Soon Finalize Recruitment Schedule and Scale
Banking Sector All 'Undecided' Amid Accelerated Digital Transformation
55 Financial Companies to Hold Non-Face-to-Face Online Job Fair in September

Main details of the joint recruitment fair for the financial sector held online in a non-face-to-face format on September 8th and 9th. [Source=Korea Federation of Banks]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] Major financial public enterprises are opening the door to the second half recruitment market this year. This is truly “good news” for job seekers trying to overcome the increasingly narrow financial sector threshold amid accelerated digital transformation and prolonged COVID-19. However, it is reported that major commercial banks have not yet finalized the scale of recruitment for the second half. Considering the downsizing effects due to digital transformation, the industry consensus is that there will be no large-scale open recruitment this second half as well.

According to the financial sector on the 2nd, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) announced that it will finalize the recruitment scale for the second half around the end of this month. Typically, KODIT’s recruitment has been around 90 to 100 people only in the second half, but this year it will be conducted in two phases: first and second half. KODIT hired about 90 people in the first half of this year. This is analyzed to be due to the financial authorities deciding to increase the recruitment scale compared to previous years, considering the government’s youth job revival policy and the increased workload caused by COVID-19.

Other financial public enterprises such as KDB Industrial Bank and Korea Eximbank also announced that they will soon finalize their recruitment plans for the second half. These are also expected to expand their recruitment scale compared to previous years.

Korea Eximbank is expected to announce its second half recruitment notice within this month. Although the exact scale has not been finalized, it is known to be similar to previous years when about 30 to 40 people were hired. Industrial Bank will announce its recruitment notice in September. Like last year, Industrial Bank will conduct new recruitments divided into first and second halves, whereas it usually only conducted recruitment in the second half. Industrial Bank hired about 60 people in the first half and is expected to hire a similar number in the second half. Even last year, when recruitment was divided into two halves, Industrial Bank hired 110 people.

The main reason major financial public enterprises are expanding recruitment scale this second half is the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Corporate restructuring and financial support tasks such as guarantees have surged compared to previous years, and due to the inverted pyramid structure of manpower, many cases of labor shortages on the ground have been reported. A representative from a financial public enterprise explained, “The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the role of policy finance, rapidly increasing manpower demand,” adding, “The lukewarm attitude of major commercial banks toward recruitment is also considered to have somewhat influenced the expansion of recruitment scale.”

On the other hand, major commercial banks have not yet finalized the scale or schedule of recruitment for the second half. This applies not only to banks that usually conduct regular recruitment in the second half such as KB Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, and NH Nonghyup Bank, but also to Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank.

This is analyzed to be largely due to physical difficulties in conducting large-scale open recruitment caused by the COVID-19 aftermath and the accelerating digital transformation of banks. As of the end of March this year, the number of branches of the five major banks (Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, Nonghyup) was 4,398, down by 191 from a year earlier. This is about twice the decrease (96 branches) from March 2019 to March last year.

A banking sector official said, “Large-scale open recruitment requires group training, but with COVID-19 continuing to spread, there are significant practical difficulties,” adding, “The accelerated consolidation and closure of branches due to digitalization likely also had an impact.” In fact, this year, major commercial banks’ recruitment methods are trending toward on-demand recruitment for digital and IT personnel rather than large-scale open recruitment.

Meanwhile, 55 financial companies will hold a joint financial sector recruitment fair online in a non-face-to-face format for two days starting September 8, sponsored by the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service. Nonghyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, Industrial Bank, Kookmin Bank, and others plan to conduct non-face-to-face interviews over the two days, and outstanding interviewees will be granted an exemption from the first document screening in future open recruitment.

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