Record-Low Application Rate for Grade 9 National Civil Service Exam
Civil Servants' Intentions to Change Jobs Reach All-Time High
The application rate for the Grade 9 civil service exam hit an all-time low.
On the 6th, the Ministry of Personnel Management announced that the number of applicants eligible to take the "2025 National Civil Service Grade 9 Open Recruitment Written Exam," held across 17 cities and provinces nationwide, was 104,952.
Among them, 78,894 people (75.2%) actually took the exam, which is lower than last year's rate of 75.8%.
The application rate has been steadily declining over the past three years: ▲2023 - 78.5% ▲2024 - 75.8% ▲2025 - 75.2%.
However, the average competition ratio based on this year’s application submissions rose to 24.3 to 1, up from last year. This is because the number of planned recruits decreased while the number of applications increased by 1,514 (1.5%) compared to last year.
Over the past five years, the competition ratio for the Grade 9 open recruitment has been declining: ▲2021 - 35 to 1 ▲2022 - 29.2 to 1 ▲2023 - 22.8 to 1 ▲2024 - 21.8 to 1, before rebounding to 24.3 to 1 this year.
According to the "2024 Public Service Life Survey" report published by the Korea Institute of Public Administration on the 9th of last month, civil servants’ job satisfaction, including their sense of achievement, has significantly decreased, while job stress has increased. Intentions to change jobs reached an all-time high due to low salaries and other factors.
In response, the government recently announced various measures to improve treatment, including salary increases for civil servants.
This year, the starting salary for Grade 9 civil servants rose by 6.6% (?123,882) from last year to ?2,000,882, surpassing ?2 million for the first time. The government plans to gradually increase it to ?2.84 million per month next year and ?3 million per month by 2027.
Meanwhile, the results of the Grade 9 civil service written exam will be announced on the 9th of next month, and the interview exams will be held from the 28th of the same month to June 2nd. The final successful candidates will be announced on June 20th.
This year, the government plans to recruit 4,330 people.
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