Youngsters in Guangzhou prefer civil service jobs
By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-14 02:03

The ambition of many young people in Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong Province, is to become civil servants, according to a survey.

The survey shows that 46.3 per cent of young people who want to work in Party and government departments, bureaux and organizations.

In addition to Party and government departments, the education, medical and legal professions are also popular among the city's youngsters.

The education and medical professions are followed by design, engineering, the police force, company management, the judiciary, journalism, the army and armed police, the arts and private business.

And only 7.1 per cent of local young people would like to become private business people.

The result of the survey has surprised many people from outside the province, according to an official from the Guangzhou Committee of the Communist Youth League yesterday.

In minds of many people from North China, money-loving Cantonese care little about politics and State affairs.

"But young Guangzhou residents are now showing that they have been wrong," said the official who refused to be named.

The survey conducted by the Guangzhou Research Institute of Youth in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao interviewed more than 500 local young people.

But the growing number of young people who are showing their great interest in becoming Party and government officials has raised great concern among local governments, the official told China Daily yesterday.

"It shows that many young people still care a great deal about their official career," said the official.

They are showing a greater interest in becoming officials and cadres rather than doing pioneering work themselves, he said.

"It is not good news actually," added the official.

A similar survey that was conducted nine years ago found that 32.9 per cent of the city's young people wanted to do pioneering work.

The number of young people who would like to be private bosses or business people accounted for the biggest percentage at that time.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, only a few young people wanted to be civil servants whose monthly income and other welfare was poor.

A Chinese saying says: "If you cannot study harder, then you have to become civil servants or cadres in the future."

And many parents used the saying, which used to be popular in many cities in the prosperous Pearl River Delta, to make their children study harder.

"Now the special saying has no longer been spreading in the province," the official said.

He attributed the increasing number of young people who are interesting in working in government departments and organizations to the stable working conditions and the improving benefits enjoyed by local civil servants.

Meanwhile, high unemployment and fierce competition in the business sector have also helped young people turn their eyes towards Party and government departments and bureaux, the official said.

Chen Linqiu, a new graduate of Zhongshan University, said civil servants now have many chances.

In addition to promotion, the improving salaries and other treatment, many civil servants are now annually subsidized by the government to further their studies abroad, Chen said.

Chen became a civil servant in Guangzhou after she passed strict examinations and defeated many other candidates early this year.

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