Officials go to work at the Government Complex Sejong. (Yonhap) The number of young adults preparing for government employment exams has halved over the past four years, as civil service continues to lose appeal due to low pay and low job satisfaction, government data showed Monday.
According to Statistics Korea, the number of people aged 20 to 34 preparing for low-ranking entry positions, levels 7 and 9 in the nine-rank system, stood at 129,000 as of May, down about 30,000 from a year earlier. It was the lowest figure since the government began compiling the data in 2017. It is also less than half of the 313,000 recorded in 2021, when the number surged in response to shrinking private sector job opportunities during the pandemic.
Higher difficulty exams for level 5 civil service positions, as well as other professional licenses such as patent attorney and accountant, also saw declines, from 105,000 in 2021 to 81,000 this year. The trend was similar for teaching jobs, with the number of exam takers falling from about 40,000 in 2020 to 24,000 this year.
A survey of 27,000 public officials conducted by the Ministry of Personnel Management and released in November found the top reason behind the drop in applicants was “low pay compared to the private sector,” cited by 88.3 percent of respondents. It was followed by “stress from (having to deal with) malicious complaints” from citizens at 39.8 percent and “vertical organizational culture” at 15.9 percent.
shinjh@heraldcorp.com