China’s provincial governments plan to boost annual recruitment of civil servants by 16% this year to 192,000, as the country seeks to bolster employment to help drive an economic recovery now that “zero Covid” has come to an end.
The governments of Gansu and Yunnan provinces, as well as those of the Guangxi Zhuang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, plan to hire 50% more civil servants than last year, with Gansu planning an increase of 80% — the most of any of China’s provincial-level regions, according to recent notices issued by the governments.
The new recruits will be selected from among people taking the 2023 provincial civil service exams. Those who win positions will work in local government agencies, their subordinate and representative bodies, and public institutions governed by the national civil servant law.
The central government also plans to hire a record number of nearly 40,000 civil servants this year, according to previous official statements.
The hiring spree comes as the country struggles to revive its slowing economy while stabilizing a job market that has been hit hard by three years of “zero Covid” controls that have led businesses to close or cut back on staffing. The situation is especially stark in the urban youth unemployment rate, which hit a record high in July.
The job market could grow even tighter later this year when a record 11.58 million university graduates hit the market, according to Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping. The central government will offer 25,000 civil servant jobs to college graduates this year, amounting to 67.4% of all the jobs that it plans to offer — the highest-ever share.
While Chinese government jobs are usually in high demand because they are seen to offer a steady income, good benefits and high job security, some scholars have warned that the increased public sector hiring will eventually take a toll on the economy.
“The consequences of the (economic) slowdown are borne by the productive sector, which will lead to a further concentration of human capital in the inefficient public sector and to a lack of endogenous growth dynamics,” economic researchers from Anhui University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a related study.
“The allocation of a large number of talented people to the non-market public sector rather than to the productive sector will pose a serious challenge to China’s steady economic growth,” they said.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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