The huge thirst for jobs in the civil service has made the national civil servant exam one of China's most competitive tests.

The first exam was held in 1995, and since then more and more people have signed up for it, with applications reaching a peak over the last two years.

The latest online survey, carried out by China Youth Daily and www.qq.com, found that more than 73 per cent of young people want to work as civil servants.

Of the 17,330 respondents, about 83 per cent said they were attracted by the job's stability, guaranteed health care and pension.

Meanwhile, 55 per cent said it could bring "practical profits."

Nearly 1 million people applied to take the exam last year, yet only just over 10,000 were finally employed.

This year the stiff competition continued. The exact number of applicants is not known, with the final day for applications today.

But the influx of applicants has already broken the exam's website once.

China Youth Daily reported that the site was forced to close for maintenance due to unusually high traffic on the night of October 16.

In a typical year several hundred applicants will apply for many of the jobs listed. For example, the five job vacancies provided by the secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party have this year attracted more than 3,880 applicants.

In general, the exam means 50 people competing for one post, the report said.

Positions as civil servants are attractive, not only because of the stable income and good health care, but also because of the low risks compared with the power and resources the positions enjoy.

Among the total 6 million public servants, around 20,000 were sacked between 1996 and 2003.


近几年掀起的“公务员热”使国家公务员考试成为中国竞争最激烈的考试之一。

自1995年国家公务员考试推行以来，报考公务员日渐升温，这两年更是热得发烫。

中国青年报和腾讯网联合开展的一项最新在线调查显示，73％以上的年轻人愿意当公务员。

在17330名调查对象中，约83％的人说，他们主要看重公务员工作稳定、医疗和养老都有保障。

此外，55％的人说，当公务员能获得“切实利益”。

去年，近100万人报考了国家公务员，而最后只有1万多人被录用。

“公务员热”今年继续升温。今天是2006年国家公务员考试报名的最后一天，目前还未统计出准确报考人数。

但报名人数过多一度造成国家公务员考试报名系统的瘫痪。

据中国青年报报道，由于10月16日晚登陆报名系统的人太多，国家公务员报名网站不得不暂停运转，进行系统维护。

通常情况下，很多职位都出现“几百人抢一个”的情况。如，今年中央办公厅秘书处的5个职位就吸引了3880个人报考。

报道说，总体上是50人“抢”一个职位。

国家公务员之所以如此有诱惑力，不仅是因为收入稳定、医疗有保障，风险小、权力大、实惠多也是其中的重要原因。


我国公务员人数达600万，从1996年至2003年，全国共有2万名公务员被辞退。


Vocabulary:

civil service: 行政机构

national civil servant: 国家公务员