KB job fairs to help baby boomer retirees

Financial group also plans to support creation of jobs, internship posts in Middle East


KB Financial Group plans to hold several job fairs for the baby-boomer generation this year as part of efforts to support shared-development.

“As an upgrade of the KB Goodjob campaign, we are considering introducing job fairs for baby boomers this year,” a KB Financial spokesman said Thursday.

Baby boomers, mainly born between 1955 and 1963, have been the major driving force in the nation’s economic development by boosting demand for domestic consumption in education, housing, labor and other markets.

As most of the baby boomers are expected to retire before 2020, the population aged between mid-30s and mid-50s, a bracket with house-purchasing power, will start shrinking soon, according to research institutes.

“There are 16.5 million baby boomers, accounting for more than 30 percent of the population,” the spokesman said. “We expect our job fairs will provide some of them with new hope and self-confidence.”

In a similar vein, KB Financial also plans to create more jobs for Koreans in the Middle East, saying that another construction boom was emerging in the region.

Last month, the government announced that it will support more than 1,200 young adults in finding work and volunteer opportunities in Muslim countries.

Earlier, President Lee Myung-bak instructed public officials to consider measures to create more employment and internship opportunities in the Middle East after his three-nation tour to the region.

Under management policies of group chairman Euh Yoon-dae, KB Financial has been executing sustainable social contribution activities in with its flagship unit KB Kookmin Bank.

Under the KB Goodjob program, which launched in early 2011, KB Financial hosted job fairs for high school and college graduates and listed more than 20,000 jobs online for jobseekers.

Kookmin Bank was the first local bank to hire trainees without college degrees last year. It has allocated 40 billion won to support companies hiring jobseekers through the campaign.

Last October, it held a two-day job fair in Songdo, Incheon, to resolve manpower shortages among small and mid-sized enterprises and provide jobseekers with opportunities.

KB Financial has also been carrying out online job fair events via its website (kbgoodjob.incruit.com) since August.

The group said it would continue to operate the online career fair even after the two-day offline event in Incheon.

“We making efforts to lead the development of the financial industry and do its responsibility as a center of the nation’s economy,” a bank unit executive said.

He said that group places particular weight on a social contribution strategy of supporting young people’s education.

“We are making efforts to do the enterprise’s social responsibility through sustainable sharing to support the low-income bracket,” he said.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)