Competition for Korea's civil service exam drops to lowest level in 31 years

Applicants enter a test center for the grade 9 civil service exam in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, on April 22, 2022. [NEWS1]

Competition for Korea's entry-level civil service selection exams has plunged to the lowest level in 31 years due to harder tests and fewer students.

With a total of 121,526 people applying last month for grade 9 exams for 5,326 new hires, the competition rate was 22.8 to one, the lowest rate since 1992, announced the Ministry of Personnel Management on Wednesday.

Competition is most intense for the 12,177 people who signed up to take the educational administration test, which is hiring 62 new officials.

The application period lasted from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11. Tests will be taken in June.

Koreans used to be drawn to the civil service due to the relative security of government jobs and regular work hours without the frequent unpaid overtime forced upon many private sector employees.

Annual salaries for grade 9 civil servants begin at 25 million won ($19,000) before taxes.

However, competition for civil service jobs has clearly been dropping in recent years.

Competition was 37.2 to one in 2020, 35.0 to one in 2021 and 29.2 to one last year. Some 44,000 fewer people signed up for the selection test this year, a 26.6 percent drop from last year.

The Personnel Management Ministry blames the removal of elective subjects and the smaller school-age population for the reduction in applicants.

Until last year, the civil service test included elective subjects, allowing test takers to choose between social science, science and math.

But the test became more difficult when these electives were removed and specialty subjects like administration and administrative law became compulsory, said the ministry.

Most applicants, or 57.3 percent, were in their 20s and below, followed by those in their 30s at 33.7 percent, 40s at 8.1 percent and 50s and above at 0.9 percent.

The average age of applicants this year was 29.9.

"Excessively high or low competition for the civil service exam can be a social problem," the ministry said, adding that an important factor is the newcomers' job competence.

BY HA SU-YOUNG, SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]