This past weekend, over 2.5 million aspiring bureaucrats – the largest number in more than a decade –It is their first hurdle in a quest to secure one of just 39,700 government jobs that begin in 2025.A record number of graduates in China arethat have extended even into the public sector.
“It’s mostly because I have always dreamed of becoming a policeman,” said the design major of his public service ambitionsMany of his university mates had also taken the exam, including four of his six roommates, he told The Straits Times. A career in government appealed to them largely because “the job is stable, pay is high, and can have time to spend with family”.
In the decade to 2020, about 1 million people took the national civil service exam each year, according to ST’s review of publicly-available figures. Their ranks have swelled since, with this year’s examinees more than doubling from four years prior. Competition was stiffest not in the big cities but in Tibet, China’s far-flung southwestern region, where an average of 150 candidates are vying for each position there.