Top 6 Banks to Hire 1,350 Staff in 2nd Half

Domestic banks will hire more staff in the second half this year amid expectation of economic recovery after significantly reducing hiring last year due to the global financial crisis.

The country’s six top banks - Kookmin, Nonghyup, Shinhan, Korea Exchange, Woori and Hana – will hire a combined 1,350 employees in the second half, up 53 percent from 885 year-on-year.

Most commercial banks say they can hire more people because they lowered salaries for new recruits and existing workers returned part of their pay to the company.

Shinhan will hire 400 staff, more than double the 110 it hired in last year’s second half.

Kookmin will take on 300 new employees, up from 90 from a year ago. Additionally, the bank will hire 200 tellers this month.

Woori will hire 200 and Korea Exchange 100. Nonghyup plans to hire 200, up from just 50 a year ago.

Insurance and credit card companies will also slightly boost entry-level hiring. Samsung Life will hire around 100 new employees and Korea Life Insurance will increase the number of its new recruits by 10 to 50 in the second half.

Hyundai Card (80 new employees), Hyundai Capital (80), Samsung Card (70) and Lotte Card (32) plan to maintain their previous employment levels. Shinhan Card will hire 70 staff via public invitation of applications for the first time since it merged with LG Card in late 2007.

The hiring situation at state-run financial companies is mixed. Korea Asset Management Corp., which did not hire new employees in last year’s second half, plans to hire 50 this time.

Industrial Bank of Korea, which recruited 189 employees in last year’s second half, will hire 200 this year.

On the other hand, Korea Development Bank will reduce the number of new recruits by 25 from the previous year to 85. Similarly, the Financial Supervisory Service will hire only 25 staff, down five from a year ago.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea will also cut hiring from last year`s 29 to 15 staff in the second half. The Bank of Korea will hire 36 new recruits, the same number it hired in last year’s second half.

With Korea’s job market frozen in this year’s first half, a great number of jobseekers are expected to apply to financial companies. When Hana Bank held a hiring session early this month, it drew 12,750 applicants for a competition rate of 85:1.

Since most financial companies seek to hire between September and October, it will be hard for job applicants to apply for several job openings.

weappon@donga.com