China’s civil service exam attracts 1.4 million applicants with eyes on the prize of an ‘iron rice bowl’ job
- The national public service exam, or guokao as it is known in Mandarin, is a hotly contested annual event, with this year’s entrants having just a 1-in-60 chance
- Most popular positions are at the National Archives Administration and State Administration for Market Regulation, report says
More than 1.4 million Chinese sat an examination on Sunday in the hope of landing one of just 24,000 government jobs up for grabs.
The national public service exam, or guokao as it is known in Mandarin, is a hotly contested annual event, with this year’s entrants having just a 1-in-60 chance of success.
The jobs on offer are in 86 central government agencies and 23 institutions directly attached to them, with the successful candidates set to take up their positions early next year, China News reported.
This year’s 1.44 million registered test-takers represented a 4 per cent increase from last year, but fell below the 1.66 million who sat the exam in 2017, the report said.
The guokao has long been a big draw for Chinese jobseekers as government jobs are regarded as providing an “iron rice bowl” of security and money.
The number of people registering for the test first passed 1 million in 2009 as China, like the rest of the world, battled the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Some of the most sought-after positions on offer this year are at the National Archives Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation, the report said.