By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
Tens of thousands of people nationwide flocked to Seoul on Sunday to take an examination to become the city’s next public servants. The high competition rate of 83.1 to 1 in the examination showed the tight job condition.
According to the Korea National Statistical Office, the unemployment rate in the first quarter decreased to 3.6 percent from 3.9 percent in the same period last year. But over 851,000 are estimated to be unemployed and seek a job.
In Sunday’s examination for the employment of the low ranking civil servants, a total of 144,455 applications were made for 1,732 posts, and 68,000 of them were from outside Seoul, which account for 47 percent of the total applications.
Because of those from outside Seoul such as Busan and Daegu, Saturday evening and Sunday morning’s KTX high-speed train tickets were sold out when the date for the exam were announced months ago. Special packages were on sale to offer exam-takers transportation to Seoul and overnight lodging.
The exam took place in 103 schools in Seoul, and some 14,000 public servants were dispatched to supervise it.
In the past, the posts for the city’s public servants were only allowed to Seoul residents until 1999 when related law was changed.
But as there was an increasing demand from the unemployed from non-Seoulites who could not find as many vacancies in Seoul as in their own region, jobseekers from all over the country were allowed to apply for a public servant post in Seoul after that.
With the high layoff rates and decrease in vacancy rate in private firms, public servants are one of the most favored jobs by jobseekers who want job security.