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More than 2.12 million candidates registered for China’s annual national civil service exam that took place this week, but only 31,200 jobs are available. Photo: Weibo

Why do Chinese crave stable government jobs over ‘inferior’ private and foreign firms?

  • Some Chinese reject US$63,000 job offers at tech giants to take lowly, albeit stable, civil service jobs working as cyber police
  • Industry insiders say studying abroad rarely offers Chinese citizens a leg up on the competition for civil service jobs, and many middle-class parents want their kids to stay put
China jobs

Over the past few years, Janet Peng’s parents have had to adjust their expectations for her career and that of her old sister, in line with the changing economic and social climate in China.

With mum and dad being private entrepreneurs, they long had a certain career trajectory in mind for their children.

Like many young people from affluent middle-class families in Shenzhen, China’s tech and financing hub, Peng’s sister went abroad for graduate studies after earning her university degree in 2014.

“At that time, my sister and my parents thought that an ideal career involved studying abroad and then working at a Hong Kong or Shenzhen investment bank in the fintech industry,” said Peng, a 20-year-old second-year university student in Guangdong.

Why are China’s fresh grads now saying no to high-paying ‘996’ jobs?

But now, Peng says her parents are encouraging her to prepare for the national civil service exam, and her 30-year-old sister is already studying as well.
“My parents now believe that the career prospects in both private and foreign companies are far inferior to working in government departments or government-backed organisations,” Peng said. “My father said he didn’t want me to study business or to study abroad because he felt that the private sector had become increasingly troublesome in recent years, with soaring operational costs and increased policy risks.”
Amid growing concerns about the impact of China’s ageing population on economic growth, coupled with the deteriorating relations between China and the West, a large and growing number of Chinese people are flocking to civil service jobs that offer what they see as a more stable career and a host of other benefits.

Even the growing number of graduates who have returned following their overseas studies are jumping on the civil service bandwagon, while industry insiders say that studying abroad rarely offers individuals a leg up on the competition.

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Record 2.1 million Chinese sit civil service exam as economy slows, youth jobless rate climbs

Record 2.1 million Chinese sit civil service exam as economy slows, youth jobless rate climbs
More than 2.12 million candidates registered for China’s national civil service exam – known as the guokao – that took place this week. The figure was up sharply from 1.58 million last year, 1.05 million in 2009 and 125,000 in 2003. This year, they’re competing for about 31,200 jobs at 75 central government agencies and 23 attached institutions, giving them a 1-in-68 chance of success. Those hired will start their new jobs next year.
And that’s just for national civil service positions. If one includes the provincial- and municipal-level exams for civil servants, there will be about 9 million applicants this year, and most are fresh graduates.

“More than 60 per cent of my college’s graduates applied for civil service jobs at various levels and state-run enterprises this year,” said Peng Bolun, who studied in Jiangxi province and received his postgraduate degree in environmental resources.

Nowadays, China’s Generation Z is less keen on working for private and foreign companies, he said.

“It’s too exhausting, and the likelihood of being unemployed after turning 35 or 40 years old is very high,” he said. “Civil servants generally earn more than the local per capita salary, with a very low risk of unemployment and no midlife job crisis, and they enjoy regular holidays … not to mention the pensions and retirement benefits are also far better than their retired peers receive in the private sector.”

The big change from the past is that graduates are now looking for job stability
Engineering department head
A junior officer post at a township-level government in the developed Greater Bay Area and Yangtze River Delta could pay 160,000 yuan (US$25,000) a year or more, plus benefits. A principal staff member in a district-level department in Shenzhen can earn an annual salary of more than 300,000 yuan.

For comparison, China’s per capita annual disposable income reached 32,189 yuan in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

“With university graduates rushing to work in the government system, it has become very crowded these past two years,” said an engineering department head at a leading Guangdong university who did not want to be identified. “We haven’t seen the related statistics, but the best postgraduates in our department all took the civil service exams last year and this year, instead of taking offers from top technology companies as they did in the past.

“Some graduates had already been offered 400,000 yuan a year by distinguished technology companies such as Huawei and Tencent, but in the end they took jobs with the cyber police,” he said. “The big change from the past is that graduates are now looking for job stability.”

China’s former finance minister decries ‘996’ culture of overwork

It is actually quite possible for extraordinary graduates from prestigious universities to get an annual salary of 1 million yuan after 10 years in the internet industry, but students are increasingly willing to forgo that career path for one that goes through the government system, he said.

In the past, a number of high-paying industries – including Big Tech and education – were highly sought after by China’s talented graduates.

Those industries hired tens of millions of young people, even as some companies were derided for their overtime culture and discrimination against older jobseekers.

However, this year has brought about a dramatic shift in the mindsets of those with degrees from China’s prestigious universities, as the central government has taken a heavy-handed approach with crackdowns and new rules that have wide-reaching implications for private companies and their workers.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of middle-class Chinese parents are encouraging their children to pursue careers in civil service, rather than study and possibly work abroad.

The number of Chinese students studying in the West remains large, but many middle-class parents expect that number to decline, as it could become more difficult for Chinese to secure long-term employment abroad.

“Last year, I still had planned on sending my two sons to study abroad in a few years, but now I’ve changed my mind,” said Joan Deng, a Guangzhou-based lawyer. “I fear they will be troubled by anti-Chinese sentiment if they live and study abroad.

Besides, she said, the central government’s crackdowns on English teaching and after-school tutoring programmes “will definitely impact ordinary middle-class Chinese families’ attempts to prepare their children to study abroad – especially for people living in second- or lower-tier urban cities”.

Why young Chinese are flocking to the civil service

Among those seeking a greater sense of stability in their lives and careers via public service is Zhang Jiuqing.

The 26-year-old Beijing native moved back home last year after spending two years in Germany pursuing a master’s degree in the German language.

However, she greatly underestimated the competitiveness and difficulty of securing a job. After failing all of the exams she took – including the teacher certification exam, the civil service exam, and other tests for state-owned enterprises – she plans to study and retake the annual civil service exam until she passes or turns 35, which it the cut-off age for taking the exam.

“Both the administrative aptitude test and the written essay require applicants to know about complex national conditions and the changing governance and public policies of authorities,” said Li Dongjie, who runs the Shenzhen Dongliang civil servant training centre in Shenzhen. “Because of this, overseas returnees actually do not have an advantage.

“In any case, a large and growing number of young people and their families will do whatever they can to succeed in the face of fiercer and fiercer competition.”

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