Jobseekers trapped in civil service exams

On the June 6 Memorial Day, a state exam institute in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, is packed with people preparing for the police exam slated for Sept. 2. / Korea Times photo by You Soo-sun

By Kim Se-jeong, You Soo-sun

On the June 6 Memorial Day, a national holiday in Korea, one academy in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, was packed with people preparing for the civil service exam.

Lee Sang-su, 30, has been preparing for the exam for the past three years. Recently, he has witnessed a greater influx of people joining the academy.

“I see more than five new faces every day,” Lee said.

Even so, he feels optimistic about taking the exam to become a police officer in September, after the new government announced a plan to recruit more government employees.

“It’s definitely a good thing, especially for those who have been preparing for a while,” Lee said. “Early this year I had planned to give up, but I decided to give it one more shot after hearing the news.”

Choi So-yeon, 26, decided to resume her studies just a few days ago. She said that the government’s plan played a crucial role in persuading her parents who were previously opposed to the move.

“It was my life-long dream, but I was discouraged after failing the exam a few times. My parents were also against it, so I gave up. But the government’s plan to hire more civil servants changed our minds,” Choi said.

Last week, Cheong Wa Dae pledged to add 12,000 jobs in the safety, health and education sectors among other fields this year alone. This puts the total number of vacancies at 64,000 for this year.

Most notably, the police and fire department are expected to recruit about 1,500 people each, with their written exams slated for September and October, respectively. Around 7,500 new posts are expected at the local level. Official announcements for all job openings are expected to be out in July.

The announcement was a follow-up to President Moon Jae-in’s pledge to create more job opportunities in the public sector to tackle youth unemployment. Earlier this week, Cheong Wa Dae requested the National Assembly to approve an extra budget designed for more job creation.

The surge of jobseekers taking the civil service exam started after Moon’s victory was clear. Private institutes in Noryangjin and Sillim in Seoul grew busier with phone inquires and people who dropped by for information. State exam prep book sales hiked and so did the number of online class subscribers.

The popularity of civil servant jobs in Korea is not new.

Traditionally, landing a government job is considered an honor for a person’s entire family in Korea. The popularity reflects the difficulty in getting decent jobs in the private sector. After the 1997 financial crisis, the number of full-time jobs with full employment benefits decreased quickly, pushing many young jobseekers to turn to the public sector that offered higher job security.

According to Statistics Korea, almost half of 692,000 jobseekers answered they were preparing for the civil service exam.

Although the general sentiment was optimistic, many were also distressed due to the increasing pressure because of a possible change.

“Others think that if we don’t pass this time, then we’re really not qualified,” said Ra Jung-wook, 28.

Almost everyone agreed that only a small number of people would benefit from the new job plan, as new posts will be allocated in different regions and positions.

“The impact is especially limited for female applicants to become police officers,” Choi said. According to Choi, only around one tenth of the posts are offered to women.

Those who began studying recently seemed nonchalant about the news.

Na Ho-won, 28, who began preparing less than a year ago, doesn’t think he will be affected.

“I don’t really pay attention to it. The threshold score for passing will be similar, so it won’t really impact me,” Na said.

Others said it was undesirable for a policy to draw the unemployed previously uninterested in the civil service exam.

A 34-year-old man, who was taking a break from his studies at the rooftop of the institute, said, “I don’t like to see more young desperate jobseekers flocking here.”

The owner of a private state exam institute, Shin Ho-chang, while agreeing that the government plan is giving more hope to people preparing for the test, thinks there are major drawbacks.

“There’s a consensus among academy directors that the plan is attracting people who are already employed or those who previously gave up,” he said. “In a way, it’s taking jobs away from small- and medium-sized companies, and not necessarily making new ones.”

Prof. Wi Jong-hyun at Chung-Ang University’s College of Business Economics said the new government’s push was too focused on the public sector jobs. “Private sectors jobs are more important to (curb unemployment), and the government must act from early on to lay the foundations for creating jobs in the private sector.”