Job seekers line up to enter the venue for a job fair hosted by KB Kookmin Bank in this May 28 file photo. (Image credit: Korea Times)

South Korea’s banks face difficulty in creating job

As the Moon Jae-in administration asks for industries to create jobs, the commercial banks in the country are currently facing a dilemma to hire more employees for the second half of this year.

On Thursday, banking industry officials said demand for workers in the financial sector is decreasing while the government pushed to recruit more employees.

The increasing of non-face-to-face transactions contributes to the demand’s declining. Due to digitization in the bank sector, local banks have encountered the pressure to downsize their organization.

Several banks have made plans on the second half recruitment. Woori Bank said the company will hire more 450 employees, despite the bank has hired 300 workers in this year’s first half.

Shinan Bank which previously recruited 350 employees in the first half, will hire an additional 650 in the second half.

While the rest of the major banks remain considering the numbers of new employees for the second half recruitment.

According to data released by Statistic Korea, the number of unemployed people in the country surprisingly reached 1.14 million as of end-June 2019, which was an increase of 103,000 from last year. The current record was claimed to be the highest in South Korea after 20-year of the Asian financial crisis which was 1.5 million in June 1999.

While the number employed people were tallied at 27.4 million in June this year, which a raise of 281,000 from a year earlier.

Source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/2019/07/126_272665.html