Recruiting in China

Civil servants are the least happy employees in China, research has revealed.

A survey of over 9,000 respondents found that civil servants had the lowest level of job satisfaction of the 12 sector categories that were included.

According to a report on the All-China Women's Federation website, employees working in the private sector had the second lowest levels, whilst the happiest employees worked in foreign enterprises and joint ventures. The survey was commissioned by the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and hosted on recruitment website Zhaopin. Three quarters of those who took it were below the age of 30.

Li Xupei, deputy director of the Mental Health Promotion Centre at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said some people entering the civil service believed their job would be "easy", but later found that they were "constantly working overtime" and that the work was unexpectedly challenging.

A 2012 survey of civil servants in China's central departments of state also found that 13.5% suffered from severe or extreme stress. Despite this, the number of people taking the recruitment exams for the Chinese civil service rose to a record 1.2m in November 2012.

According to China's Global Times, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has begun a pilot project which offers new civil servants fixed-term employment contracts, ending the widely-held perception that a job in the civil service is a job for life. This may reduce demand for government positions in future.

Li said the survey also found that, despite low satisfaction levels, the "collective happiness" of civil servants was high due to the respect they receive from the public.