"Increased Administrative Demand... Adjusting Civil Service Staffing to Reality"
Written Exams on June 20 for Grades 8 and 9, and on October 31 for Grade 7
The government will newly hire a total of 28,122 local public officials this year across 17 cities and provinces. This is an increase of more than 10,000 compared to last year.
On the 25th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the "2026 Local Public Officials New Recruitment Plan" containing these details.
The size of this year’s intake was decided after deliberation by the personnel committees of each local government, reflecting expected vacancies due to retirement and leave, the need to respond to local pending issues, and demand from organizational restructuring. In particular, the government plans to significantly reinforce personnel in fields that protect people’s lives and safety, such as integrated care, suicide prevention, disaster and safety situation room operations, and strengthening welfare and safety functions at eup, myeon, and dong community offices, and will therefore hire 10,457 more people (59.2%) than last year.
This is the first time in four years that more than 20,000 local public officials will be newly hired, since 2022 when 28,717 people were recruited. The number of newly hired local public officials was 18,819 in 2023, 16,333 in 2024, and 17,665 in 2025.
Of the 28,122 people to be newly hired this year, 748 will be at grade 7 or higher, and 24,452 will be at grades 8 and 9.
Including 552 research and guidance positions, 2,281 fixed-term positions, and 19 specialist positions, there will be 28,052 general service public officials. By city and province, Gyeonggi Province will hire 5,944 people, Seoul 3,638, North Gyeongsang Province 2,316, South Gyeongsang Province 2,081, South Jeolla Province 1,902, and South Chungcheong Province 1,880, among others.
By job series, the plan is to recruit 9,692 administrative officers, 3,478 facility officers, 3,603 social welfare officers, 1,372 nursing officers, and 957 tax officers, among others.
Of the new recruits, 23,464 people (83.4%) will be hired through open competitive examinations, and 4,658 people (16.6%) through career competitive examinations.
To realize social integration and secure diversity within the civil service, persons with disabilities and low-income applicants will be recruited through separate tracks, and hiring will also be conducted to support the early entry into society of graduates (or expected graduates) from technical high schools who possess specialized skills. For persons with disabilities, 1,818 people (6.5%) will be selected in the grade 7 and grade 9 exams, exceeding the statutory mandatory employment ratio of 3.8%. For low-income applicants, 791 people (2.8%) will be selected in the grade 9 exam, exceeding the statutory mandatory employment ratio of 2%. For graduates (or expected graduates) of specialized and Meister technical high schools, 377 people will be recruited through the grade 9 career competitive examination.
Meanwhile, starting next year, the Korean language subject of the grade 7 open competitive local public official examination will be replaced by the Public Service Aptitude Test and administered separately as an independent qualification test.
The Korean history subject of the grade 8 and grade 9 open competitive examinations will be administered as a written test only until this year, and from next year it will be replaced by the Korean History Proficiency Test (level 3 or higher) administered by the National Institute of Korean History.
The method for determining successful candidates will also be improved so that, in the event of a tie, candidates will be ranked based on higher scores in the second-stage subjects (two subjects for each job category).
This year’s written examinations for local public officials will be held simultaneously nationwide, with the grade 8 and grade 9 exams on June 20 and the grade 7 exam on October 31. Specific details, including the number of recruits by city and province, can be found on the websites of local governments or on the local government online application center.
Jang Heonbeom, acting policy chief of the Local Autonomy Innovation Office, said, "Despite the increased administrative demand over the years, the staffing levels for local public officials had been frozen for the past three years, and this year’s plan reflects an adjustment to more realistic levels," adding, "We will do our utmost to select talented individuals who can enhance the competitiveness of local governments so that residents can enjoy high-quality administrative services in their daily lives."
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