BEIJING: Some provinces and regions in China have relaxed age restrictions for candidates registering for civil servant examinations, sending a positive signal to middle-aged people who may be experiencing employment anxiety.
Over the weekend, 27 provinces and regions — out of the 30 that recently started their civil servant recruitment campaigns — organized written examinations. Among these provinces, 10 of them, including Henan and Hubei, as well as Tianjin municipality, raised age restrictions for candidates to 40 years old, up from 35. Henan clarified in a recruitment notice that those born after January 1982 and holding a master’s or doctoral degree can apply for civil servant positions, except for some vacancies that have strict age limits. Previously, these vacancies were only open to candidates under 35 years old.
The Inner Mongolia autonomous region raised its age limit from 35 years old to 40 for some grassroots positions in remote areas.
The Henan Civil Service Bureau said that the relaxation was due to changing requirements for certain positions, while it’s not sure if the bureau will keep relaxing age limits in the future.
A State-level regulation for civil servant recruitment released in 2007 said that candidates should be between 18 and 35 years of age.
“The age relaxation shows the nation’s resolve to promote employment,” Zhu Lijia, an associate professor at the National Academy of Governance, said in an interview with the news outlet Shanghai Observer.
He said that the age limit caused many companies to follow suit, while relaxing it can help promote a fairer job market and avoid prejudice against middle-aged job seekers. In the past few years, prejudice against employees in their late 30s has attracted attention both from the government and the public.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
