Banking Sector Job Market Tightens... Reducing Open Recruitment and Expanding Rolling Hiring

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] As the employment market freezes due to COVID-19, banks are also simultaneously reducing their hiring scale, making the competition among job seekers aiming to enter the financial sector even fiercer.

According to the financial sector on the 6th, among commercial banks, except for NongHyup Bank, no decisions have been made regarding open recruitment for the first half of the year. This is interpreted as due to the burden of conducting written exams amid the COVID-19 aftermath and the rapid reduction of branches as digital transformation accelerates.

NongHyup Bank is currently recruiting 340 new employees to fulfill its corporate social responsibility by early securing of talented personnel and creating youth jobs. The application deadline was on the 22nd of last month, and after online aptitude tests, written exams, and interviews, the final successful candidates will be announced in April.

Woori Bank plans to conduct a special recruitment of 20 people this month. Although those who were fraudulently hired due to recruitment corruption between 2015 and 2017 have been dismissed, it was judged difficult to directly remedy the unsuccessful candidates at that time as the victims could not be identified. Therefore, separate from the original annual recruitment plan, a special recruitment of 20 people will be held this month.

Shinhan Bank has not confirmed whether it will hold open recruitment in the first half of the year. Last year, due to the impact of COVID-19, it did not conduct open recruitment in the first half and changed the schedule to recruit specialized personnel on an irregular basis and hold open recruitment in the second half.

Kookmin Bank and Hana Bank plan to conduct open recruitment only in the second half of the year.

An official from a bank said, "Due to changes in the business environment such as COVID-19, it is difficult to maintain the usual scale of recruitment," adding, "We will reduce open recruitment and expand irregular recruitment mainly in digital and IT fields."