"Even Secure Jobs Are Unattractive with Low Pay"… Seoul MZ Public Officials' Resignation Rate Doubles in 3 Years

9th Grade Civil Service Exam Competition Rate Drops Sharply from '84 to 1' to '22 to 1'

The number of 'MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z)' public officials leaving the public sector is increasing. It has been revealed that the number of public officials with less than five years of service who resigned from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and 25 district offices in Seoul nearly doubled in the past three years.

According to data on the 'recent 10-year resignation rate of MZ generation public officials' received by Ok Jae-eun, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Administrative Autonomy Committee (People Power Party), from the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the 7th, a total of 281 public officials with less than five years of service resigned from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and 25 district offices in Seoul last year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Last year, a total of 561 public officials resigned from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and district offices, with those having less than five years of service accounting for half of that number. This is also the largest scale in the past 10 years (2013?2022). Compared to 157 in 2019, the number has approximately doubled in three years.

This trend is also reflected in the resignation rate (the number of retirees divided by the number of newly appointed officials). The resignation rate for those with less than five years of service gradually increased from 3.4% in 2013 to 4.7% in 2019, then jumped to 8.6% last year.

The popularity of the civil service exam has also declined compared to before. The competition rate for the Grade 9 civil service exam dropped from 84 to 1 in 2013 to about 22 to 1 last year.

The dominant opinion is that the cause of this phenomenon is 'low pay.' According to the Ministry of Personnel Management's 'Survey on the Level of Salaries in the Public and Private Sectors,' the public officials' wages compared to the private sector, which was 95.9% in 2004, fell to about 82.3% in 2022.

In 2018, the Grade 9 first step salary (1,448,800 KRW) was 124,970 KRW lower than the minimum wage (1,573,770 KRW). This year, the Grade 9 first step salary is 1,770,800 KRW, which is 239,780 KRW less than the minimum wage (2,010,580 KRW).

Since the 2015 reform of the public officials' pension system, which involved 'paying more and receiving less,' the pension has ceased to be an advantage for public officials entering service after 2016. Assembly member Ok pointed out, "Measures to boost morale, such as special leave, should be prepared, and overall changes to the rigid culture of the public sector should be sought."

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