Applicants sit for a state exam to recruit public servants at a test site in southern Seoul on April 2, 2022, in this photo provided by the Ministry of Personnel Management.
SEOUL, March 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The once sought-after job of working as a government employee is losing popularity due to stagnant wages and an overhaul of the pension system.
The Ministry of Personnel Management recently received applications for the state exam to recruit grade 9 public servants.
A total of 121,526 people applied for 5,326 available positions, showing a competition rate of 22.8 to 1, the lowest since 1992.
Over the last five years, the competition rate dropped from 39.2:1 in 2019 and 37.2:1 in 2020 to 35.0:1 in 2021 and 29.2:1 last year.
This year, the number of applications dropped by 26.6 percent from the previous year.
“It still poses a problem whether the competition rate over civil servant recruitment is too high or too low,” the ministry said. “What’s important is the working capacity of new recruits.”
This year, first-year grade 9 public servants will earn 1,770,800 won per month, including taxes.
Since 2016, the national pension has been giving out more payments to subscribers than the civil servant’s pension, in contrast to how much subscribers pay for it.
The pension system is facing a deficit of more than 3 trillion won (US$2.26 billion), and public servants are being forced to pay more, benefit less, and receive later.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
