Park, a person surnamed Park (29) who started preparing for jobs in the financial sector early this year, is considering changing career paths. Park is preparing to get a job at financial public corporations and commercial banks, but is wavering because public corporations have a high possibility of a local transfer and banks are reducing the size of their annual entry-level open recruitment.
According to the financial sector on the 9th, the government plans to finalize the second plan for the local transfer of public institutions around Oct.–Nov. after going through a public debate process. The three major state-run banks, including Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK)(024110) and Export-Import Bank of Korea, as well as the Financial Supervisory Service, Bank of Korea, and others are also being discussed for local transfer. These are grouped as top-tier financial public corporations and are regarded as "jobs of the gods," and the entrance exams here are so competitive that they are called the "financial public corporation A match."
However, in the past few years, as pay at commercial banks has risen sharply and overtaken financial public corporations, competition for entry-level positions at public corporations has eased while the number of resignations has increased. The FSS even fell short in this year's open hiring for specialists and experienced hires (grades 4–5). Inside the FSS, some say, "If a local transfer is confirmed, some of the newly appointed specialists and experienced hires may additionally give up their posts."
A job consultant said, "As more places offer better compensation than top-tier financial public corporations, competition for (jobs) keeps falling. These days, many say, 'If I'm going to study that much, I'd rather go to a securities firm.'" In this year's Incruit survey on "financial corporations where college students want to work," preferences for securities firms (34.4%) and general banks (34.5%) were 0.1 percentage point apart. Two years ago, banks were at 40% and securities firms at 26%, a wide gap.
The bar for getting hired at commercial banks is also rising. The four major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori) hired 485 entry-level employees in open recruitment in the first half, down 18.5% from the same period a year earlier. Annual entry-level hiring is also declining: 1,880 in 2023, 1,380 in 2024 and 1,280 in 2025.
Banks are only increasing hiring in AI and information technology (IT). Shinhan Bank alone conducted three rounds of rolling recruitment this year for AI/IT experienced hires. In first-half hiring of experienced regular employees this year, Hana Bank subdivided roles such as AI/data platform development, Generative AI/AI modeling/data analysis, and recruited for them as separate functions.
An official at a commercial bank said, "Demand is rising to strengthen mobile and internet banking services, but as demand for offline branches and in-person services falls, entry-level open recruitment is decreasing." The four major commercial banks had 2,201 branches nationwide at the end of the first half this year, down 258 over three years.