Civil service exam attracts record numbers

A record 1.52 million candidates registered and qualified for the national service exam - but 500,000 decided not to sit on Sunday.

Some 990,000 candidates sat the 2014 National Public Servant Exam, a decrease of 130,000 from last year, according to the State Administration of Civil Service.

One out of 51 exam takers should succeed in gaining a post this year, since there are 19,000 job vacancies from China's central authority, their affiliated public institutions and local branches in 2014, a slight drop from 2013, according to the administration.

Every year sees candidates drop out of taking the exam: 380,000 of 1.5 million candidates in 2013 and 370,000 out of 1.33 million in 2012.

The most coveted position this year is at the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, with 14,384 candidates vying for two vacancies, a ratio of 7,192:1.

Candidate Wang Yuan, who participated in the exam at Beijing Xicheng Foreign Languages School, told chinanews.com one of her friends ditched because she was "busy at work, with no time for revision and no confidence to take it."

Many people registered but didn't pay, Yuan Yuren, an education expert from the education website huatu.com, told the website.

Some dropped out as they lacked confidence, others because they have busy day jobs, Yuan said.

Many still see being an official as their first choice for employment, Wu Hongmin, a teacher for the public service exam, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"The number of applicants shows a steady increase, but the growth rate has declined compared with last year," he said.

The passion for government jobs could partly be attributed to the fairness of the contest, plus the lifetime "iron rice bowl" job security, Wu said.

Lü Yue, a postgraduate from the China Youth University for Political Sciences, applied for one of two vacancies at the Tianjin Maritime Affairs Bureau alongside 800 applicants.

"Although the national civil service exam is more difficult than the provincial, I wanted to accumulate experience for other provincial exams," she told the Global Times.