[Correspondent Diary] China Civil Service Exam Also a Needle's Eye

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[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] The competition rate for the Chinese national civil service exam has soared to as high as 3334 to 1, showing that stable jobs are popular even in the socialist country of China.

Due to the uncertainty in employment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the preference for jobs commonly called 'Neul-gong (always civil servant),' such as civil servants and teachers, has increased further.

China is also facing a severe employment crisis for university graduates, to the extent that it is analyzed as the worst employment environment since the Cultural Revolution in 1976. This year, about 8.7 million new university graduates are seeking jobs. Including overseas students and those unemployed from the previous year, the number of job seekers is estimated to exceed 9 million.

Reflecting this atmosphere, 1.5 million people applied for this year's Chinese national civil service exam, an increase of 70,000 from last year's 1.43 million.

The average competition rate for this year's national civil service exam is 54.16 to 1.

For the first-level position in the Dongguan office of the Guangdong survey team at the National Bureau of Statistics, 3,334 applicants competed for one spot. It is narrower than the eye of a needle.

The civil servant positions affiliated with the China National Committee on Aging also recorded a competition rate of 1543 to 1.

On the 31st of last month, a large number of applicants also flocked to the public primary and secondary school teacher qualification exams held in 28 provinces across China. China conducts the qualification exam twice a year, but the exam scheduled for the first half of this year was postponed due to COVID-19.

In Jiangsu Province, the number of examinees reached about 447,000, an increase of more than 10% compared to last year, marking the highest number of applicants for the teacher qualification exam ever.

The Chinese Ministry of Education previously announced plans to recruit an additional 400,000 kindergarten and primary and secondary school teachers. This aims to create new jobs for university graduates and simultaneously reform the education system in underdeveloped areas. The treatment of teachers was also promised. The social atmosphere recognizing the authority of teachers is also attractive.

The wage level of Chinese civil servants is lower than that of private companies. However, due to direct and indirect experiences of unemployment caused by COVID-19, the tendency among Chinese university graduates to prefer stable jobs such as civil servants or teachers has deepened.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.