This Year, 5,272 National Public Officials to Be Recruited... Shift to 9th Grade Exam Policy

Grade 5 Civil Service Exam, Second Test with Only Mandatory Subjects

The number of recruits for this year's national civil service open competitive examination has been confirmed at 5,272.

The Ministry of Personnel Management announced on the 2nd that the "2025 National Civil Service Open Competitive Recruitment Examination Plan" will be posted through the Cyber National Examination Center and other channels.

The number of recruits by rank is 305 for Grade 5 open competitive examination, 42 for diplomatic service candidates, 595 for Grade 7 open competitive examination, and 4,330 for Grade 9 open competitive examination.

The main recruitment fields are ▲Correction service 728, Prosecution service 264, Immigration control service 148 ▲Tax service 1,045, Forestry service 136, Customs service 134 ▲Computer service 199, Statistics service 108, etc.

In particular, this year, 3 new recruits will be hired for the Grade 5 electronic service, 11 for the Grade 7 legal administration service, 13 for the Grade 7 general environment service, and 48 for the Grade 9 general environment service.

Employment opportunities for persons with disabilities (Grades 7 and 9) and low-income groups (Grade 9) will also be increased. Persons with disabilities will be recruited at 300 (7.6%), which is twice the statutory mandatory employment rate (3.8%), and low-income groups will be recruited at 124 (2.9%), exceeding the statutory mandatory rate (2%) for Grade 9 recruits.

Starting this year, the elective subjects in the second test of the Grade 5 open competitive examination will be eliminated, and the second test will be conducted only with the existing compulsory subjects.

The integrated essay test (I and II) for diplomatic service candidate selection will be merged into a single "Integrated Essay Test."

Also, in the Grade 9 open competitive examination, the question format for Korean and English subjects will be changed. Instead of questions that require memorization of knowledge, questions focusing on language comprehension, reasoning ability, and practical skills required for actual job performance will be emphasized. Accordingly, the written test time will increase from 100 minutes to 110 minutes.

This year's national civil service open competitive written examinations will be held on March 8 for Grade 5 and diplomatic service candidates, April 5 for Grade 9, and July 19 for Grade 7, respectively.