In WeChat groups, students share tips on how to improve their scores and provide each other with emotional support as they wait for term time and try to prepare.
Shangshang, a 21-year-old college senior in Yunnan province who declined to give his full name, said a government role would reduce the risk of “inbreeding” — a word young Chinese often use to describe heavy pressure at work. use for.
“Being a civil servant gives you a lot of stability,” she said.
tight budget
Civil servant jobs in China have been in high demand for thousands of years, as those with high scores on a five-hour multidisciplinary exam have been a surefire way to move up the social ladder.
To this day, families take pride in their children joining the state enterprise sector, or civil service, of 55 million people, which as per the latest figures in 2015 was over 7 million strong and is now expected to grow much larger.
Those jobs pay more than 100,000 yuan ($14,000) a year on average, but can be 3-4 times more in large coastal cities. This is often much higher than what similar private sector roles pay, and comes with housing subsidies and other perks.
That has helped them remain popular despite city governments in several provinces including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian cutting salaries by up to a third this year, according to at least six civil servants and some local media articles.
It is not clear how widely the cuts to state sector salaries are spread across China, but provincial governments – hit by property collapse and the cost of COVID – are grappling with a $1 trillion budget shortfall this year.
A Guangzhou government official said on condition of anonymity that “city clerks go home with less money” not through any fault of their own, but because of severe financial challenges.
“This year may be the worst in the last 10 years but it may be the best in the coming 10 years,” the official said.
safe inside
Jane Kang, who works at a county-level prosecutor’s office in Fujian province, says her salary of 110,000-120,000 yuan a year will drop 10-15% in 2022. This displeases her, but she sees limited options for improving her situation.
Kang said, “If I cannot leave the country, I will stay in the system.” “If you work in the system, you have more protection than ordinary people working outside it.”
Some government employees say that the work environment has also deteriorated.
