Ditching the ‘iron rice bowl’: alarm at rise in young workers quitting Hong Kong civil service
More work, no pensions and a bitter political environment are three factors cited for growing trend of employees leaving government
Over half of the 900 civil servants who resigned in the last financial year had not completed their probation, according to government statistics, and almost one-third of them had taken jobs in the private sector.
The revelation has raised questions over whether working in the public sector is still an attractive career route, with commentators pointing to an increased workload, lack of a pension scheme and an increasingly bitter political environment.
According to papers submitted to the Legislative Council’s public service panel, the resignation rate for civil servants has risen steadily from 0.4 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal year to 0.55 per cent last year.
But what surprised many was that over half of the 900 who resigned last year quit during their three-year probationary period.
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Of the 319 who responded to the exit survey, 28 per cent of them said they left to take up a job in the private sector, 18 per cent cited family and marriage reasons, and 14 per cent decided to pursue further studies.