Over 6,000 vie for one job in China’s civil service recruitment, while some posts draw no applicants

Registration for China’s annual national civil service examination has closed, with intense competition for popular posts. One attracted more than 6,000 applicants, while nearly 100 received none.

According to China News Service, Saturday (24 October) was the final day of registration for the 2027 national civil service examination, commonly known as the “guokao”. The recruitment drive aims to fill 35,700 vacancies, about 2,400 fewer than the previous year.

Figures compiled by the Yangtse Evening Post showed that, as of 6pm on Saturday, 3.315 million people nationwide had applied. More than 3 million had passed eligibility screening, bringing the average ratio of eligible applicants to vacancies to about 85 to one. Each of the 10 most popular posts attracted more than 3,400 applicants.

The most competitive post was for a “first-level police inspector or below (17)” with the Yanbian Border Management Detachment under the Jilin General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection. There was just one vacancy, but 6,061 applicants passed eligibility screening.

A first-level staff member post with the Gongyi survey team under the National Bureau of Statistics’ Henan survey office drew 5,578 eligible applicants for a single vacancy.

Another post, for a first-level principal staff member or below in the resource survey division of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Resource Development Department, attracted 4,857 eligible applicants, also for just one vacancy.

Meanwhile, 83 posts, accounting for 101 vacancies, had received no applications when registration closed. Beijing Youth Daily noted that these posts were concentrated in particular agencies, mainly maritime safety administrations, railway public security bureaus and general stations of exit and entry frontier inspection. Some posts in meteorological bureaus, the National Bureau of Statistics’ survey offices and customs agencies also drew no applicants.

By region, Guangdong attracted 302,000 applicants, far ahead of other provinces. Shandong ranked second with 197,000, followed by Beijing, Henan and Sichuan.