Over half a million Chinese will sit a national civil servant recruitment examination on Saturday. This means that on average 42 people are competing for every position.  

 

The Ministry of Personnel, which manages the annual examination, announced Tuesday that 535,574 people will compete for 12,724 job vacancies in 89 central departments and regional units of these sections.

 

"The examination is popular because it provides level ground for competition to become civil servants," said Vice Minister of Personnel Yin Weimin in an on-line interview with China's central government website at www.gov.cn.

 

He said the examination's popularity was due to the prestige associated with civil servants and increasing competition in the job market.

 

The examination is open to nearly all Chinese citizens aged 18 to 35 who are college graduates. However, those with criminal records, who've been removed from public office for wrongdoing, caught cheating in an examination in the past two years, service personnel, incumbent civil servants and civil servants who've been sacked within the last five years can't apply.  

 

Since 1994 China has organized 13 consecutive civil service recruitment examinations for departments of the central authorities and regional units of these departments. Of over 1.16 million people who've sat the exam 45,000 have been recruited.

 

In this year's examination over one third of the posts are allocated to college graduates with more than two years work experience at grass-roots level. Candidates from such backgrounds, especially from outlying areas with inhospitable conditions, enjoy preferential treatment in recruitment.

 

The measure apparently aims to encourage college students to take jobs at grass-roots levels on graduation.

 

With the rapid expansion of college enrollment graduates are struggling to find jobs in large and medium-size cities but demand for their qualifications remains high in small cities, towns and rural areas.

 

An estimated 4.13 million college students graduated this year. This is 750,000 more than 2005.  The number of new college graduates will be close to five million in 2007.

 

Civil servant recruitment examinations for provincial authorities are carried out separately.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2006)