As employment difficulties for young people continue in China, the National Civil Service Examination (Guocao), which was held for the first time since the age limit was reduced, attracted the largest number of people ever.
According to the Chinese government agency Xinhua News Agency and Beijing Daily on the 1st, the 2026 Guocao Written Test was conducted the day before at approximately 110,000 test sites in 31 provinces (provinces) and 250 cities across China.
The number of civil servants selected this year was 38,100, a slight decrease from the previous year (36,500), but the number of applicants who passed the qualification screening reached a record high of 3718,000. The competition ratio is 98 to 1.
This is due to the increase in the number of applicants as the Chinese government expands the age at which people can take the civil service exam from 35 to 38, and from 40 to 43 for master's and doctoral programs. This is the first national test to be held since the regulations were relaxed.
The number of applicants for the civil service exam has increased steadily in recent years. Approximately 2.6 million people took the 2023 exam (conducted in 2022), and surpassed 3 million for the first time in 2024. The number increased to 3416,000 in the 2025 exam. As a result, the competition ratio also rose to 70 to 1 in 2023, 77 to 1 in 2024, 86 to 1 in 2025, and soared to 99 to 1 in 2026.
The number of test takers who actually showed up at the test site was counted as 2831,000. The actual competition ratio is calculated at about 74 to 1.
The most popular recruitment agency was the National Immigration Service's Ruili Repatriation Center Executive Team. 6470 people gathered to select only 1 player.
Civil servants have been recognized as a “stable job” in China, and it seems that the preference for civil servants has increased even more as the economic slowdown, real estate downturn, and the biggest increase in college graduates since the COVID-19 pandemic overlapped. The number of college graduates in China this year was 12.22 million, the highest in history, and it is expected to reach 12.7 million next year.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, as of October, the unemployment rate for young people aged 16 to 24 in urban areas was 17.3%, slightly lower than the previous month, but it is still high. In August, the youth unemployment rate rose to 18.9%, the highest since the Chinese government introduced and announced new standards (excluding current students) in December 2023.
China temporarily suspended the announcement after the youth unemployment rate soared to 21.3% in June of last year, and then published statistics again in December of the same year by excluding middle school, high school, and university students.
