Korea's four largest banks, KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank and Woori Bank, rehired 1,013 retirees last year, equal to 79.1% of their graduate intake, according to the Korean news agency News1 on 3 November1. That is roughly four returning retirees for every five graduates hired. Entry-level hiring at banks fell about 30% over two years, News1 reports, and the returners work in credit screening and internal control on contracts of up to two years at lower pay, while AI takes over repetitive tasks.
The pattern matches what the Bank of Korea found in August: youth jobs fell in AI-exposed sectors while employment among workers in their fifties rose, and youth employment kept falling in September. In Japan, the three largest banking groups are cutting their graduate intake for April 2027.
In effect, a bank that pays a buyout and rehires the same person a year later on a cheaper fixed term keeps experienced judgement and skips the cost of training a graduate. News1 does not name its data source and gives no bank-by-bank figures, so the numbers cannot yet be checked against the banks' own disclosures.
