Following the closing date for students to apply for next year's
civil service jobs on October 28, Monday's Workers' Daily
reported on the increasing competition for these posts, talking to
academics on the reasons behind it.
Shu Fang, associate professor of Renmin
University of China's School of Public Administration, said the
civil service examination has become even more competitive than
university entrance and postgraduate admission examinations.
According to the Ministry of Personnel's website, 383,008
students will be vying for 8,662 posts in 97 central government
departments. Including applications for local government positions
the number is almost 1 million, compared to 0.54 million the
previous year.
The number of applications has risen every year since the
national civil service examination was introduced in 1994, despite
the fact that salaries are higher in joint ventures.
Hu Tingsheng, director of the Vocational Training and Guiding
Center for Students at South China Normal University, said students
sit the exam either because they are well-prepared or because they
see it as good practice for the future. He believed that the actual
number of competitors is lower than what appears.
The Workers' Daily said the average monthly salary of
civil servants in Beijing and Shanghai is around 3,000 yuan
(US$371), much higher than other public institutions, and reports
that the government would continue to increase civil service wages
may have encouraged more applications.
Besides stability, less work pressure and desirable social
status, civil service positions also offer housing subsidies and
medical allowances, according to Dr. Hu Wei with the Institute of
Administration Research under the Renmin University.
One worker at a Shanghai foreign-owned company, Liu, said she
dreamt of becoming a civil servant.
"People often think working in a foreign company is a splendid
job," she said, "For example, the salary is high; the working
environment is excellent and so on. However, they never think about
that it is very common for us to work for more than 12 or 13 hours
a day. We often feel extremely tired."
In the past 11 years, more than 800, 000 people successfully
passed the examination and became civil servants. Growth in
applicants in the last three years has been especially fast.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke, November 3, 2005)