Examinees wait in line to sit in the 2021 national civil service exam on November 28, 2021. Photo: Chinanews.com

On the fourth day of registration for the 2023 civil servant intake in China on Friday, with this year's recruitment requirements highlighting the construction of grass-roots workers and candidates' political quality, the competition for some of the popular positions has exceeded "one position for a thousand people."

The registration runs from October 25 to November 3 online, with positions posted on authorized websites. China plans to recruit a record number of 37,100 civil servants to work for central government agencies and institutions directly under them, the National Civil Service Administration said on Monday.

This year sees a further expansion in the recruitment of fresh graduates with 25,000 positions open for them, or 67.4 percent of the 37,100 positions, which is the highest share in recent years. The Global Times found that the number of positions this year is higher than the 31,242 in 2022 and 25,726 in 2021, and a record high for the decade.

Taking a grass-roots position in a county tax bureau in Northwest China's Qinghai Province as an example, there is only one vacancy for this position, but more than 1,300 candidates have applied.

The position is in the category of "western regions and remote areas," which requires a college degree or above, and majors in mathematics, electronic information, computers and other fields. There are no limitations for candidates in terms of grass-roots working experience and the minimum years of working at a grass-roots level.

More and more young people desire civil service jobs not only because of the stability but also the increasing social recognition in recent years.

Providing more positions for fresh graduates has been one of the main characteristics of the civil servant intake during recent years, which aims to create more employment and opportunities for graduates as well as attracting more young people to work at the grass-roots level, thereby improving the quality of civil servants at the grass-roots level, Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday.

The policy of favoring fresh graduates definitely offers benefits to them and will help them find stable jobs, and there are also voices calling for more opportunities for those who graduated in previous years, Xiong said.

There are also some positions that are less attractive for candidates as they have high requirements, according to Xiong.

For those graduates who would like to work at the grass-roots level, systematic training and cultivation is required to help them improve their capabilities. According to a survey of college graduates, they value the prospects, salary, job stability, self-realization and working environment, said Xiong.

Candidates will need to take a national written exam, which is scheduled to be held on December 4 nationwide, while those applying for certain positions will need to take additional tests.

More than 3,000 positions will be open only to those working in select primary-level projects, as well as veterans who have college degrees and served for at least five years, according to the Xinhua News Agency.