Pandemic sparks interest in public sector careers

Calla Cambrey had planned to become a barrister but a work placement in the Welsh government in Cardiff, where she is studying economics and politics, helped inspire her to apply for jobs in the civil service.

“In the situation we’re in now, I want a job where I’m giving back,” she says. “A lot of people won’t come out of the pandemic particularly well, and I want to work somewhere where I can help.”

Her views on public sector careers are mirrored by others in a number of countries around the world. Coronavirus has fuelled renewed interest in the sector, whether because of a heightened sense of public service, the relatively attractive terms on offer or a lack of alternative opportunities during the current economic downturn.

In the UK, the civil service Fast Stream programme offers a competitive entry for about 1,000 people each year. With other leading employers, including the Big Four accountants, reducing the number of places on offer. Martin Birchall, head of High Fliers, a research group, says it has become the largest single recruiter for top graduates during the pandemic.

Birchall argues that demand for and supply of public sector jobs has risen. A survey conducted by his organisation last November showed 57 per cent of students in the UK wanted a job where they could “give something back” — up from 41 per cent two years earlier. “In a crisis, people reach for certainty and stability. 2021 will be a bumper intake.”

The appeal of the civil service is echoed elsewhere, including in India, which inherited a system created for elite British officers to run the former colony. One million people each year apply for just 1,000 posts with the Union Public Service Commission, India’s central recruitment agency for public servants, where applicants must pass 30 hours of exams, an interview and a personality test.

With severe underemployment, Indians have long been drawn to public sector jobs offering security and attractive benefits. Coronavirus delayed last year’s exam from June to October and some whose applications were disrupted have even petitioned the Supreme Court for a chance to apply.

Aryendra Sharma, 27, gave up his “decent paying” job as an engineer to devote 12-13 hours a day over the past year to prepare for exams, cramming topics from current affairs to world history and ethics. “A civil service job definitely raises your status,” he says. “There’s no other job that allows you to truly serve the people and the nation.”

In China, where the word mandarin is synonymous with public servants, the lure of high social and economic status through state control of resources has been present for centuries. Imperial China’s civil service exam, which lasted for 1,300 years, was the best way for men of modest backgrounds to climb the social ladder.

Under the communist regime, government jobs gained popularity after Beijing resumed the civil service exam in 1994. Today’s candidates take writing tests that include an analysis of why a state-led economy works, and more than 100 multiple choice questions on everything from the working languages of the UN to the chemical properties of silver jewellery.

The appeal of the “iron rice bowl” (a Chinese idiom meaning secure state employment) remains strong despite the rise of the private sector in recent years. “China’s civil service has historically been able to attract the nation’s best talent and the situation is getting stronger after the pandemic,” says Ming Xia, a professor at City University of New York.

A survey last June of college graduates in Shaoxing, a wealthy city in eastern China, found 44 per cent considered public service their top choice, twice the level of 2019. The number of applications for 26,000 annual places rose to 965,000 for last November’s exams, compared with 920,000 a year earlier.

Lucy Li, who joined her local finance bureau this year after losing her job as an accountant in the northern city of Tangshan, says: “Very few private sector jobs could rival government positions in having so many benefits.”

In France, the number of applications for just 83 places each year at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, the elite civil service “finishing school”, rose from 1,735 in 2019 to 1,775 in 2020, largely because of a new entry route for those with PhDs. It is shortly to unveil an additional process targeting those from under-represented groups.

Patrick Gérard, director of the Ena, says two-thirds of his students volunteered last year to help with the pandemic response. “When there is a big event that touches the country, like the Bataclan [terror attack] in 2015 or coronavirus, people ask ‘what can I do?’ Covid has shown the need for solidarity, health and organisation, and all parts of the state came forward.”

But he cautions that while work in the public sector remains broadly prestigious and relatively attractive in France, it is less so than during the “30 glorious years” of reconstruction after the second world war, ahead of the explosion of higher-paying private sector jobs.

As in other countries, a mixture of squeezed budgets and an expectation of limited opportunities mean there is ambivalence about public sector work — a trend exacerbated as governments are squeezed by coronavirus-linked reductions in tax revenues and escalating borrowing.

In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made slimming down public bureaucracy a significant goal of his austerity-focused policies to fund more social programmes. Between December 2018, when his government came to power, and June 2020, his administration had cut 9,430 jobs — a fifth of its payroll.

“Salaries in the government are very low,” says one senior ministerial employee. “There is no health insurance and no payout when you leave. It’s a 24-hour job in mid-level and high-level posts and it’s up to you to pay for everything — electricity, telephone, internet.”

Rosa Pavanelli, head of Public Services International, the global federation of trade unions, says coronavirus has highlighted the importance of government jobs. But, she says, it also revealed weaknesses caused by the longstanding erosion of services as benefits have fallen behind, short-term contracts were introduced and roles privatised or outsourced.

“I think the call for more investment in public services is now clear to people but is not yet on the agenda of institutions,” she says. “We need to insist on the difference that quality public employment can make for people and also for business.”

Thomas Voss, president of the Volcker Alliance in New York, a non-profit seeking to strengthen the public sector, says that since the rallying call for public service by John F Kennedy, successive politicians’ criticisms of bureaucracy from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump have eroded trust and support.

The law governing the civil service has not been reformed since 1978, “when government was hiring for secretarial pools working with manual typewriters, pay and promotion was tied to a grading system and you worked at one place for most of your career”. Voss wants reforms including “lateral” recruitment at senior levels and a more frequent turnover in roles.

He points to a slight uptick in recent overall demand for government employment in December after a long period of stagnation, and believes new federal stimulus support to respond to the pandemic could trigger fresh hiring by state and local governments.

His organisation has also launched initiatives with universities to connect students to government roles. “The sense of responsibility to serve is at a higher level with this generation,” he says.