Millions in China cram for civil service exam and the hope of a job for life | China
A record number of people will take China’s notoriously grueling national civil service exam this weekend, reflecting the growing desire of Chinese workers to find jobs in the public sector rather than the private sector.
About 3.7 million people registered for Saturday and Sunday’s exams, which will be the first since the government raised the age limit for certain positions. The age limit for general candidates was increased from 35 to 38, and for postgraduate graduates, the age limit was increased from 40 to 43.
Millions of applicants will compete for 38,100 civil service positions nationwide; This corresponds to an average of 97 people per job.
Some jobs are particularly in demand. According to data published in Chinese media, the position that received the most applications was the position of immigration officer in the city of Ruili, in southwestern Yunnan province, on the border with Myanmar. The applications of 6 thousand 470 people for a single job were approved.
Beijing announced in October that it would also raise the age limit for civil service exams, in line with recent increases in China’s retirement age.
China’s aging population and shrinking retirement budget are forcing a reckoning with relatively low retirement ages. Last year the government approved plans to gradually increase the retirement age for the first time since the 1950s. The legal retirement age for women will increase from 50 to 55 for those in blue-collar jobs and from 55 to 58 for those in white-collar jobs. The retirement age for men will increase from 60 to 63.
Although public sector jobs generally have lower wages — and some debt-ridden local governments have struggled to even pay wages in recent years — they are increasingly coveted for their security in an increasingly tough economy. Going back to the Maoist era, jobs in the civil service are known as providing the “iron rice bowl”, an idiom that refers to having a job for life.
Delving into the risks and rewards of business enterprise during China’s reform and opening-up years, xiahai, or “jumping overboard”. People are talking now Shangan, or “landing” to describe the successful migration of exams into the stable public sector.
“The occupational structure of China’s labor market has changed markedly over the past decade [from] high-paying, high-skill jobs [manufacturing] and towards low-wage, low-skill construction in the business and informal sectors. “In the latter case, benefits and pensions are either non-existent or uncertain, and formal contractual obligations are weak,” said George Magnus, a research fellow at the China Center at Oxford University. “With 12 million graduates coming onto the market every year… it is not hard to understand the preference for secure state sector jobs.”
The unemployment rate in China is 5.1% for the general workforce and 17.3% for young people aged 16-24, excluding university students. In 2023, the government temporarily stopped publishing youth unemployment figures, which reached a record high of 21.3%, and resumed publication a few months later with a new method that excluded students.
The trade war and weak consumer demand following the Covid-19 outbreak negatively affected the Chinese economy; Many young people choose to “do nothing”, that is, do nothing, rather than seek employment in jobs that they think do not match their level of education or do not provide sufficient benefits. And next year, China is poised for a record 12.7 million graduates.
The raising of the age limit for exams was generally welcomed; especially because it can help employees avoid the well-documented “curse of 35,” in which companies refuse to accept tall people after their mid-30s.
But some also spoke of the difficulties of juggling exam preparation and caring for young families; It’s a balance that new graduates have less to worry about.
The civil service exam is notoriously grueling, with questions about law, physics, biology, politics, and reasoning. According to the official announcement, since last year, there is also a section on political theory; this section “focuses on the candidates’ ability to analyze and solve problems using the Party’s innovative theories”. Questions from last year covered Xi Jinping’s major speeches and Communist party general assemblies over the past 12 months.
A 35-year-old mother shared her daily routine on Xiaohongshu as she prepares for this year’s tests. This included pre-dawn starts and blockages in childcare-related work sessions; The result was four to five hours of sleep a night. “Days are for Powerpoint presentations, nights are for formulas and picture books, waking up at 4am is time to prepare for the exam.”
Additional research by Lillian Yang
