SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - OCBC Group said on Monday (June 15) that it plans to hire over 3,000 people in Singapore this year, amid the economic and employment uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
About seven in ten of these jobs are full-time roles across the banking group's entities, such as OCBC Bank, OCBC Securities, its private-banking subsidiary Bank of Singapore as well as its insurance arm Great Eastern.
These 2,100 new positions represent about 19 per cent of the group's current workforce of some 11,000 employees in Singapore.
The full-time openings are in areas such as wealth management, corporate banking, risk management, data analytics, operations and technology.
OCBC is also on the lookout for technology-related personnel to facilitate its roll-out of digital solutions for customers and employees, which have seen a significant increase in uptake driven by the pandemic.
The remaining 900 positions will be a mix of traineeships and internships.
OCBC will offer more than 500 traineeships to university and polytechnic graduates, in areas such as corporate banking, data and technology, under the nationwide SGUnited Traineeships Programme introduced in March.
Meanwhile, 400 internships will be offered to university and polytechnic students to provide them with insights into the banking and insurance industry.
On top of these openings, OCBC will continue to offer traineeships through the Technology in Finance Immersion Programme to help jobseekers looking for a career switch in new tech areas within the financial services sector, including cloud computing, cybersecurity and full stack development.
Group chief executive officer Samuel Tsien said: "We are committed to helping Singaporeans ride out this extremely difficult period. By creating and protecting jobs, we contribute towards boosting disposable incomes and consumer confidence. Both are much needed to reignite the economy."
The Singapore banking trio of OCBC, DBS and UOB had earlier also pledged no retrenchments as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Shares of OCBC Bank fell 2 per cent to trade at $9.06 as at 11.11am on Monday, while Great Eastern was flat at $20.20.
