Number of civil service openings to increase

China plans to hire 37,100 civil servants for central government departments and institutions for next year, an increase of 18.7 percent year-on-year, according to the National Civil Service Administration.

The civil servant intake has increased for four consecutive years, with more than 31,000 posts being offered this year, more than 25,000 last year, and more than 24,000 in 2020.

A total of 25,000 positions will only be eligible for new college graduates in 2023 to help them find employment.

More than 3,000 vacancies will be open only to those working in select primary-level projects, as well as veterans who have college degrees and served for a minimum of five years.

Applications will be accepted online from Oct 25 to Nov 3, with positions to be posted on authorized websites.

Candidates will need to take a national written exam, which is scheduled to be held on Dec 4 across the country, while those applying for certain positions will need to take additional professional skills tests.

An official from the administration said political quality will be an important criterion and it will be used to assess potential candidates throughout the hiring process. Any candidate found to have political flaws will not be hired, the official said.

Since 2009, applicants for civil service positions in central authorities and their branches have exceeded 1 million. More than 2 million applicants qualified to take the exam last year and experts estimate that the number for this year is likely to continue to increase.

Li Pengfei, a postgraduate student majoring in translation at a Beijing university, said he plans to take the exam and hopefully will become a civil servant responsible for translation work at the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The translation post is highly related to what he learned at university and his parents are also supportive of his decision, he said.

"The recruitment process for civil servants has ensured openness and transparency and I want to work in Beijing for the long term, so stable jobs like civil servants are a good fit for me," he said.

Li has also applied for jobs at large State-owned banks and other major State-owned enterprises in Beijing and is still waiting for their feedback.

Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that as the number of new college graduates exceeded 10 million for the first time this year, the increase in government-related vacancies can help them find stable jobs.

More vacancies have been allocated for grassroots-level positions to improve the quality of civil servants at lower levels and increase the governance capabilities of primary-level government departments, he told China News Service.

College graduates with new knowledge and concepts and of high quality are needed for rural areas and community-level positions in cities, he said.