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Rise of AI drives job seekers back to civil service

Published: 05 Mar. 2026, 07:00

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

Students study at an Eduwill private academy branch in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 27. [EDUWILL]

SUWON, Gyeonggi — A receptionist at Eduwill, a private education company, is busy fielding phone calls from prospective students these days inquiring about civil service exam preparation courses. She has become much busier in recent months as the number of students preparing for the exam has surged, driven by an increase in public-sector hiring and growing concerns that artificial intelligence poses a threat to private-sector jobs, prompting younger generations to prioritize job stability over higher pay.

She is getting various types of phone calls from university graduates as well as young office workers looking to make career shifts. Among the callers was the mother of a university student, who, after attempting a university transfer, decided to change course and begin preparing for a career in the public sector instead.

Inside the academy, classrooms were packed with young students, mostly dressed in comfortable sweatshirts and track pants, busy underlining textbooks while attentively listening to the lecture.

Jobs in the public sector have long been shunned by younger generations due to relatively low pay compared to private firms and a rigid hierarchical culture. The average starting salary for Grade 7 to 9 public officials is estimated at 32.16 million won ($21,830) before a 6.6 percent increase this year. That is far lower than the salary of Samsung Electronics' entry workers two years ago, which stood at 50.46 million won, according to job search portal JobKorea.

Interest has rebounded in recent months, however, as growing difficulties in securing positions in private companies — which are increasingly favoring experienced hires over entry-level recruits — fueled the trend, along with a government move to expand hiring and increase salaries for civil servants.

According to the Ministry of Personnel Management, the number of national civil servants to be recruited nationwide this year has risen to 5,351 from last year’s 5,272. The figure turned upward for the first time in five years. The competition ratio for the grade 9 civil service exam, which closed in early February, rose to 28.6:1 from 24.3:1 a year earlier after the government announced a 3.5 percent increase in overall public servant pay for 2026 compared to the previous year, somewhat mitigating a major deterrent from joining the civil service.

“I had originally considered public corporations,” said a 31-year-old surnamed Kwak, a former bakery cafe employee who is now preparing for the Grade 9 civil service exam. “But after hearing about the planned salary increases for civil servants, I decided to start preparing for the civil service exam at the beginning of this year.”

She added, “As the number of entry-level positions at companies shrinks, there aren’t many opportunities to start a career these days. Even for internships, there is a long list of required qualifications, and opportunities are extremely limited, as everyone is building theirs at the same time.”

Students attend a public worker exam information session in Noryangjin, western Seoul, on Dec. 20, 2025. [HACKERS EDUCATION]

Comeback of civil service exams

The number of people aged 20 to 34 preparing for general government employee exams has been declining in recent years, falling to just 129,000 in May of last year — a 58 percent drop compared to the same month in 2020, according to the government data. However, recent figures indicate the trend is reversing.

According to Eduwill, the number of new enrollees in the fourth quarter of last year increased by 25.9 percent compared to the same period the previous year. The number of academy registrants — excluding online students — for the entry-level grade 9 civil worker exam jumped 62 percent in January from the same month a year earlier, with much of the increase concentrated among aspiring firefighters.

“Inquiries began rising sharply from April last year ahead of the July enrollment season, with enrollments climbing 40 percent compared to the previous year,” said Yu Gyeong-un, head of the academy. “Not only recent college graduates, but also people in their late 20s to early 30s have been signing up in large numbers — particularly those with science and engineering backgrounds who feel they are losing ground in the AI-driven era.”

Hackers Education, another private academy, reported a similar trend, noting that attendance at its nationwide civil service seminars in Seoul, Busan and Daegu in December of last year surged by 300 percent compared to the previous year.

“Our in-person classes are already full, so we’ve had to add additional online classes,” said a spokesperson.

Sales of civil service exam prep books confirm the trend, with major online bookstores, including Kyobo Book and yes24, reporting a 25 percent rise in November and 15 percent in December.

“Sales of books for the employment and labor sector have more than tripled this year,” said a bookstore employee surnamed Park, who works at a shop in Noryangjin, western Seoul — widely known as the hub for civil service exam preparation — who has been in the publishing sector for the past decade. “The significant increase in available positions this year, along with instructors heavily promoting it as something that can be prepared for in a short period, appears to have driven the trend.”

With this year’s national civil service exam, the number of openings in the employment and labor category has risen sharply to 820, up nearly 18-fold from just 46 last year.

This change in trends has even impacted the real estate market, with contracts for goshiwon, or low-cost studio apartments typically rented by students, rising.

“Compared to last year, the number of students living in goshiwon has increased by 15 percent,” said a property owner surnamed Yu, who runs two goshiwon in Noryangjin. “They’re currently about 80 percent full, and I expect they’ll be completely occupied by March.”

“I took over a goshiwon in 2000 and had to remodel twice as the Noryangjin market declined, reducing rooms to improve space and quality. Running it profitably has been tough for many years, so the surge in civil service exam takers — and the resulting increase in student tenants — is extremely welcome news.”

Yoon Yu-min, a fourth-year student at Kyonggi University preparing for a public worker exam, speaks to the reporter at Eduwill academy in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 27. [EDUWILL]

AI job jitters

On top of increased positions and higher salaries, a range of additional factors have contributed to the recent rebound in the number of students preparing for civil service exams.

Reduced entry-level hiring by private companies, accelerated by the rapid adoption of AI, has heightened anxiety and led many job seekers to pursue more reliable and stable jobs, even if they come with heavy workloads and relatively low pay.

“These days, you can work at a private company, earn good money and use the career experience to switch jobs for even better pay, but for me, stability comes first,” said 22-year-old Yoon Yu-min, a fourth-year student at Kyonggi University preparing for a public worker exam.

“I’m concerned about the rigid culture within the civil service, but more than anything, the stability that comes with being a public servant makes all those drawbacks worthwhile.” Up until two years ago, the young generation largely refused to become public servants, citing an unfriendly work culture as one of the core reasons, as they specifically blamed an isolating work culture that tends to cover up any incidents of bullying within the organization.

Of 873 companies surveyed, 73.4 percent said they plan to hire new employees this year. Among them, only 27.9 percent plan to hold regular open recruitment this year, while 55.4 percent intend to hire experienced professionals through rolling recruitment, according to the Seoul-based recruitment platform Incruit.

The decline in youth employment has been concentrated in industries heavily exposed to AI, according to a Bank of Korea report from October of last year. Over the past three years, the number of jobs for young people — defined as those aged between 15 and 29 — decreased by 211,000, of which 208,000 were in industries with high AI exposure, the report showed.

Specifically, youth employment in computer programming and system integration and management, publishing, professional services and information services has dropped by 11.2 percent, 20.4 percent, 8.8 percent, and 23.8 percent, respectively, since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. In contrast, the core working-age population, including those in their 50s, has seen little change and continues to maintain previous employment growth trends.

“AI has employers leaning toward experienced hires, and the number of entry-level jobs is falling,” said Kim Yong-jin, a professor of business administration at Sogang University. “That leaves newcomers with few chances to build a career. In that sense, passing the civil service exam lets you start a career with stability.”

But the trend may be short-lived. “Expanding the government work force costs a lot and ultimately falls on taxpayers, so the increase in civil servants is unlikely to last long,” said Kim Sang-bong, an economics professor at Hansung University.

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]