Growing number of young civil servants quit

Sejong Government Complex (Getty Images)

South Korea has been seeing a consistent increase in the number of young government workers quitting, indicating a rapid change in the perception of what had once been considered a dream job.

In 2021, 3,123 government employees quit in their first year, more than triple the 951 in 2018, according to the recent figures by the Government Employees Pension Service. A total of 12,076 civil servants who worked less than three years before resigning in 2021, which was more than double the 5,166 in 2018.

The waning popularity of the job is also shown in the decreasing competition for the state examination for the grade 9 worker job, which for this year marked a 21.8-to-1 ratio of applicants to places, the lowest since 1992.

Surveys suggest this is an ongoing trend stemming from disillusionment with government posts, despite its nickname as an "iron rice bowl" because it was nearly impossible for a civil servant to get fired without committing a serious crime.

But last year's survey by the Korea Institute of Public Administration on 6,000 government officials showed that 45.2 percent of them are willing to switch to another job if given the chance. The tendency to jump ship was more profound in those who worked for five years or less, with 65.3 percent expressing their will to work elsewhere.

With the government official post losing its appeal among the younger generation, regional government have been implementing measures to make the job more appealing.

Daegu city government last month announced series of tasks to overhaul the work environment, which include refraining from having impromptu after-work dinners or sending frequent notifications to the entire staff, allowing workers to use their days off freely, and abolishing the tradition of transferring officials giving rice cakes to the members of one's former division as parting gifts.

The city of Donghae in Gangwon Province recently introduced a policy recommending watching a movie or visiting popular eateries as work events, instead of the binge drinking that has been conventional for such occasions. The city government has one of the highest percentage of young workers in the country, with 54 percent of its officials being in their 20s or 30s.

It is unclear how effective such measures will be, however, considering that the top reason young government workers give for job dissatisfaction is low pay.

According to the aforementioned survey by the KIPA, the No. 1 reason for the young civil servants not wanting to work anymore was the low pay, with 74.1 percent pinpointing it as the reason they wanted to leave. The starting monthly wage for the lowest grade government official is 1.77 million won ($1,330) without incentives and other benefits, lower than the 2 million won one can make in a month by working the government-approved hours at the minimum wage.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)