University graduates line up for government posts


Updated: 2006-10-29 11:01

Where did all the university graduates disappear to? Glued to the computer, clicking frenetically on the mouse, refreshing the screen time after time... what were they up to? Answer: registering for the 2007 national examination for civil servants.

Only two days after it opened to the public on October 14, the civil servants examination registration website broke down, unable to process the countless clicks from applicants all over China.

According to the Ministry of Personnel, 12,000 vacancies in 89 central government institutions are open to young talents this year. When online applications closed on October 24, two posts in the personnel department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) had seemingly attracted over 60,000 applicants. But official statistics on the total number of applicants have not yet been released.

Introduced in 1994 as one of the measures adopted by the central government to improve administrative reform, the national examination for civil servants has always been popular. In 2004, a total of 780,000 applicants competed for 8,000 positions, and in 2005, about one million applicants applied for 10,000 positions.

"The enthusiasm for civil service careers reflects the cut-throat competition in China's tight job market," said Xue Huifang, deputy director of the Department of Public Administration Research of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science.

A report by the National Development and Reform Commission on April 27 showed that China faces serious challenges this year because three out of five university leavers are expected to join the ranks of the unemployed. The number of graduates will increase by 22 percent over the previous year to reach 4.13 million but the job market can only soak up 1.66 million new graduates, down 22 percent on the previous year. Many 2005 graduates are still hunting for work.

"It is hard to create new jobs in large numbers because of surplus production capacity, trade frictions and the revaluation of the yuan. As a result, it is not going to be easy to deal with employment pressures", said Zhang Xiaojian, Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security.

Based on the principles of "transparency, fairness, competition and merit", the examination system for civil servants "has been successful in providing a good opportunity for university graduates regardless of their household registration and family background," said Zhang Bailin, Minister of Personnel.
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