Photo: CFP

More than 20 provinces across China kicked off their written examination for the 2023 local civil intake with priority treatment to fresh graduates this year and multi measures to encourage talents to devote themselves to grassroots service. 

Most of these provinces have expanded their recruitment quota this year. South China's Guangdong Province plans to recruit 18,258 civil servants for departments and institutions under the provincial government, while Central China's Hubei is budgeting for 11,268 new government workers to be deployed across departments and institutions at city, county and township levels.

Four provincial-level localities expanded their recruitment scale by more than 50 percent, including Northwest China's Gansu Province, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Among them, Gansu has expanded its intake by nearly 80 percent to 4,249. 

Many government institutions are retiring this year, so that there will be vacancies in various units. Hopefully a younger public service workforce can be created, so more than half of the positions are opened only for new graduates, an official responsible for Gansu's civil servant recruitment this year told local media.

A total of 11.58 million Chinese college graduates will enter the labor market this year, a year-on-year increase of 820,000, according to statistics from China's Ministry of Education.

A notice on the employment and entrepreneurship of college graduates in 2023 released by the ministry on November 14, 2022, highlighted the importance of policy-based positions in stabilizing employment and ensuring that the number of college graduates recruited into the public sector is maintained and appropriately increased.

Under this guidance, many provinces across the country have relaxed requirements related to work experience and age in some positions so as to provide more opportunities for fresh graduates. In Central China's Henan Province, 98 percent of the 9,134 positions opened this year have no formal work experience requirements, while 34 available positions have no restrictions on college major. The age limit for newly graduated master's and doctoral graduates has been extended to 40 from the normal 35 threshold.

This year's public service recruitment policies are also more geared toward grassroots positions.

A total of 5,365 among the total 6,360 open slots this year in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province are for departments and institutions at city, county and township levels. 

Some local governments are also recruiting specific talent based on local development requirements.

Yunnan Province has advertised for 450 positions within its law enforcement team for natural resources, ecological environmental protection, road transport and emergency management. North China's Hebei has placed priority on recruiting talent for urgently needed positions in fields like urban and rural planning, finance and economy, environmental science, information industry as well as medicine and biology.       

Global Times