Brokerages cut staff numbers as financial market stagnates

Local brokerages are reducing their staff amid continued stagnation in the stock market, according to reports.

Staff sizes at 63 brokerages in Korea dropped by 0.6 percent from 42,682 at the end of last year to 42,388 in the first quarter, the Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Financial Investment Association said Monday.

It is the first time brokerages have reduced employees since 2009, in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

“The continued market stagnation resulted in a smaller work load, which naturally led to a decrease in employees. Brokerages are downsizing as they close down and integrate branches,” said an official at a local brokerage who declined to give his name.

Tongyang Securities laid off the most staff, from 3,000 to 2,922, between January and March this year. It was followed by Mirae Asset, Samsung Securities and Hyundai Securities, which shed 69, 31 and 25 employees, respectively.

Yuhwa Securities had the most drastic rate in staff reduction, 10.2 percent. The firm cut 10 of its 98 employees this year. Hanyang Securities downsized by 7.2 percent, Leading Investment & Securities by 6.4 percent and IBK Investment & Securities by 3.7 percent.

Notably, it was mostly non-permanent workers who were laid off. While the number of full-time workers in 63 local brokerages decreased by 0.2 percent from 34,338 last year to 34,282 this year, the number of contract workers dropped 3.1 percent from 8,166 to 7,916.

The number of executives at brokerages, on the other hand, grew from 1,023 to 1,085.

Only few hired more employees in the first quarter, including Korea Investment & Securities, Shinhan Investment and Kiwoom Securities which recruited 76, 36 and 29, respectively.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)