Civil servant job demand among young Koreans falls to record low
A billboard advertises a cram school for the civil service exam in Noryangjin, a hub for exam preaparation, in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The number of young Koreans aspiring to become civil servants — once coveted as an “iron rice bowl” for its lifetime job security — has dropped to a record low, data showed Monday.
As of May, 129,000 Koreans aged 20 to 34 who were categorized as economically inactive were preparing for the entry-level Grade 9 and Grade 7 civil service exams, according to Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), a website run by Statistics Korea.
The figure marks a decline of 30,000 from a year earlier, extending a four-year downward trend and hitting the lowest level since data tracking began in 2017.
Economically inactive individuals refer to people who are neither employed nor actively seeking work, a category that includes students as well as those preparing for exams.
The 129,000 figure also represents a more than 50 percent drop from 2021, when entry-level civil service exam takers peaked at 313,000, driven in part by pandemic-era job insecurity in the private sector.
The data indicates civil service jobs are losing appeal among young Koreans due to lower salaries compared to the private sector, increasing stress and a rigid hierarchical workplace culture.
Young Koreans are also shunning upper-level civil service positions.
The number of those aged 20-34 who were preparing for high-level civil service exams and professional licenses — including Grade 5 civil service exam takers, patent attorneys and certified public accountants — reached 81,000 this year, down from 105,000 in 2021.
The number of teachers preparing for a corresponding exam remains at 24,000 this year. It peaked at 40,000 in 2020, but dropped to just over 30,000 in 2021 and 2022, then to 29,000 in 2023 and 23,000 in 2024.
The number of exam takers fell to 83,000 in 2024 from 117,000 in 2020 for state-run companies and government-affiliated institutions.