Join the queue for this job and feel the earth move
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Fancy a Chinese government job? How about the Inner Mongolia Seismological Bureau?
If so, you’ll have to take your place behind more than 1,000 other applicants.
The position — only one is available — is one of the most popular choices this year in China’s annual civil service recruitment exercise.
Every year more than a million people take the entrance examination in an attempt to secure a government post.
Such positions often pay poor salaries, but offer job security and other benefits.
This year, among the most sought after positions is with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, according to Xinhua news agency, while another job proving to be in great demand is as a customs officer in Guangdong, which neighbors Hong Kong and is among China’s richest provinces.
Customs officers reportedly have wide discretion to set import duties, but the Inner Mongolia earthquake bureau does not appear to offer similar opportunities.
The salary is roughly 3,000 yuan (US$470) a month, an official at the bureau told reporters. “This position is for the technological management department, no special training in seismology is necessary,” he said.
Chinese civil servants benefit from what is dubbed the “iron rice bowl,” indicating a steady income and status, as well as expenses.
Even so, 876 jobs out of the 27,817 on offer this year, with a deadline for applications set for this Saturday, have attracted no interest whatsoever, Xinhua said.
The fact that the Inner Mongolian Seismological Bureau is in the provincial capital of Hohhot, rather than a remote township, may have increased its appeal, and the low requirements may also be a factor.
On jobseeker commented online: “This is the only one I could apply for.” Another was more tongue in cheek, saying that he had applied for the post “because Inner Mongolia doesn’t have earthquakes.”
China plans to recruit 27,000 civil servants for national-level government agencies this year, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Usually, there are an average of 50 applicants per position, and the most coveted jobs attract 100 hopefuls for each vacancy.
However, enthusiasm for government work has been fading. There were about 1.4 million people who applied for the 2015 exam, down from 1.52 million last year.
“The vacancies have greatly increased, but applicants have not necessarily surged,” said Yan Jirong, a professor at Peking University’s School of Government. He said the appeal of government jobs would continue to drop as graduates had other choices.
A former Beijing government worker, who asked not to be identified, said she earned 5,500 yuan a month before moving to a bank for four times that.
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