Civil servant recruitments shrink as public service's popularity ebbs

An applicant heads into a testing site in Jongno District, central Seoul, to become a grade nine civil servant on June 10, 2023. [YONHAP]

As the popularity of becoming a public official dwindles, local governments are reducing the number of new civil servants they hire.

In particular, the reductions come amid surging resignations by young civil servants, especially ones of the so-called MZ generation.

Daegu Metropolitan City confirmed last Thursday that it would recruit 210 civil servants this year, the lowest public servant recruitment since 2012, when 138 people were hired.

This year is half the number of new hires compared to last year, with 422 civil servants.

The number is also one-fifth of the number of people hired in 2017, 959 people, which surged as the number of baby boomer retirees increased.

“We decided to hire the minimum number of employees, considering a low number of retirees in recent years and the financial crisis,” a Daegu Metropolitan Government official told the JoongAng Ilbo.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government also decided to hire 1,602 civil officials in grades seven to nine this year, 718 fewer than last year.

“The number of recruits was based on the expected number of retirements, following the over-recruitment of government personnel during the former President Moon Jae-in administration.” a Seoul city government official said.

Busan Metropolitan City plans to hire 510 civil servants this year, half the number hired last year with 1,012.

Incheon Metropolitan City reduced recruitment to 451 new public servants, down 30 percent from last year's 642.

Daejeon Metropolitan City announced it would recruit 224 new public servants this year, down 29.3 percent from last year.

Sejong City also decided to hire 50 public servants this year, the smallest public servant recruitment nationwide.

Such cutbacks follow one of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s initiatives to reduce the nation’s financial burden by operating the government with existing human resources rather than hiring new employees.

Government employees have increased since late President Roh Moo-hyun's administration, which hired 978,000 civil servants. President Lee Myung-bak's administration hired 990,000 civil servants, followed by former President Park Geun-hye's administration with 1.03 million.

A total of 1.16 million were hired to work for the government during the previous Moon administration.

The Yoon administration plans to relocate 1 percent of public service employees annually from departments with reduced roles due to political changes to departments involved in administration initiatives.

Many expect the number of civil servants in provincial areas to decrease as public servant positions grow less popular and resignations by officials from the "Gen MZ" soar.

Generation MZ refers to people born between 1980 and 2010.

The ebbing popularity of the civil service is remarkable as the postings were considered a "dream job" for its job security just a few years ago.

However, young people increasingly shun the civil service, largely due to low salaries.

“Many MZers believe they should be paid according to how much they work,” honorary Prof. Park Hong-yoon at Korea National University of Transportation said.

According to the Government Employees Pension Service, the number of resignations by people with three or fewer years on the job has increased yearly since 2018.

In 2018, 5,166 civil servants resigned, followed by 6,147 in 2019, 8,442 in 2020 and 9,881 in 2021.

In 2022, the number of resignations by people with three or fewer years on the job surpassed 10,000, with 12,076 people leaving.

The number of government employees who resigned within a year also drastically increased.

In 2018, 951 civil servants resigned within their first year, while 1,769 resigned in 2019 under the same circumstances.

In 2022, over three times as many civil servants resigned within their first year of employment compared to 2018, with a total of 3,123.

The average competition rate for grade nine civil servants has significantly decreased over the past five years.

In 2020, the competitiveness was 37.2 to one, followed by 35 to one in 2021 and 29.2 to one in 2022.

Last year, it dropped to 22.8 to one, and this year’s competition rate was 21.8 to one, a 32-year record low since 19.3 to one in 1992.

BY BAEK KYUNG-SEO, KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]