Government vacancies still attract jobseekers, Hong Kong civil service chief says after about 2,000 resignations in the past year
- Patrick Nip says there could be many reasons behind resignations, such as family, personal plans or health issues
- He says job stability, good pay packages still attract candidates to public service, adding that authorities recently received 14,000 new job applications
Hong Kong’s civil service chief has said government vacancies remain attractive for jobseekers, even though nearly 2,000 public servants resigned over the past 12 months, the most in at least 15 years.
Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen also said on Monday that while there could be various reasons public servants chose to leave their jobs, the government had continued to welcome newcomers who wanted to serve society.
“For those who resigned, there could be all kinds of reasons, such as family, personal plans or health. They could also be recruited by private or statutory bodies,” he said.
“The number [of resignations] was on the rise in the past decade, but the workload, stress and … job requirements have also increased in the past 10 years.”
Last week, the Civil Service Bureau revealed in a paper submitted to lawmakers that 1,863 public servants quit their jobs in 2020-21. That accounted for around a fifth of the about 8,500 workers who left the service for various reasons, including retirement or contract ending, in the past financial year.
The number choosing to leave the civil service has been rising since 2006-07 when about 400 workers – around 0.3 per cent of the staff at the time – resigned. The number surpassed the 1,000 mark in 2015-16, at roughly 0.65 per cent of the workforce. The figure for 2020-21 represented 1.05 per cent.