CRI听力:Nearly One Million People Tested for Public Offices in China

Candidates in the hope of gaining employment in posts at the China Banking Regulatory Commission and for vacancies requiring foreign languages took exams on the first exam day.

And on the second exam day, they took the general exam.

Of these 960,000 contestants, about 88,000 applicants came from Beijing.

Nie Shengkui, director of the civil servant exam management department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, explains that classifying the civil servant exams is an unavoidable trend.

"We will continue consulting with relevant departments about the different needs for different posts, and design written exams for certain specialties."

It is reported that the number of qualified applicants for the written exam has decreased for two consecutive years.

In 2010, China had 1.4 million qualified applicants, 30,000 less than the number in 2009.

Yang Yu, a researcher from China's National Development and Reform Commission, says the major reason for the decrease is that the government has set more detailed requirements for different posts.

"There are changes taking place each year with the entrance requirements for the candidates as well as what the posts demand. What's more, China is working to lift the threshold for candidates and improve the civil service recruitment mechanism."

Meanwhile, China has made grassroots work experience a requirement for civil service hopefuls who are competing for central-and provincial-level posts this year. That means most of these posts will no longer be open to college graduates.

According to earlier reports, the number of this year's qualified applicants for central-and provincial-level positions decreased by 19 percent from last year's figure.

For CRI, I'm Wang Ling.