An applicant in China scours the posted ads for job information at an employment fair in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. (Photo : Reuters)
A number of China's civil servants are leaving their secure lifelong jobs in government, known as "iron rice bowls," to seek new jobs in the private sector, China Daily reported.
According to the report, the country's civil service has lost about 12,000 civil servants in 2015, who left their jobs to join private employers willing to take in former government employees.
Some attributed this to the anti-corruption campaign, public criticisms of government workers, the growing disparity in wages between government and private sector, and slow promotion.
Yang Xingqiao, a public servant for 10 years, told China Daily that he left the government to take a job as director of government affairs at an Internet firm, but for a different reason.
"I was very happy with a government position, but I'd love to explore something new, somewhere else, and find a better me for the next 10 years," Yang said.
A report by LinkedIn.cn said some government workers no longer look at government jobs as a lifelong career.
"Driven by social and economic reform, as well as the movement toward entrepreneurship and innovation in China, more promising job vacancies are popping up from mature private firms and multinationals," the report said.
"China's recruitment and promotion procedures for civil servants have become more meritocratic. Now civil servants are a well-educated group of people with diverse backgrounds instead of plodding, inflexible ones," the report added.
"Companies hope to improve their government relations and better understand and follow China's policies and regulations by recruiting more of China's civil servants," according to the report.
A human resource staff in a foreign-invested enterprise said that a former government employee can help a company establish itself in the Chinese market and challenge local rivals.
"We have paid much more attention to government affairs that have a direct effect on market entry, product registration and bidding," the staff member was quoted as saying. "For example, we are facing much more competition from innovative local players than before. Unhealthy government relations would put us in an adverse situation."
Most people who have experienced working in the government can teach their skills to others and they have traits that are common with their private-sector counterparts, Wang Yixin, a senior consultant at human resources website Zhaopin, said.
