BEIJING - Chinese Internet users seemed pleased with the cooling off of "civil servant fever" as fewer people took the national civil service examination on Sunday.

Some 1.4 million people have applied for government jobs this year and nearly 900,000 actually sat the exam, both about 100,000 fewer than last year. The figures are the lowest in five years.

An analysis of comments on the Internet found that 73.6 percent of them "liked" the fact and said that was not beyond expectation, according to the China Youth Daily public opinion monitoring office.

"Zhu Changhong" said it was strange that thousands of people were competing for a single government post, concluding that they must have thought working for the government meant higher income, both "evident" and "hidden", and better social security.

Only 51.6 percent of comments thought anti-graft campaigns were a significant factor.

Discussions since 2013, on whether civil servants' salaries should be raised have helped people to make rational choices, according to the China Youth Daily. Many grassroots civil servants have revealed their actual incomes online, and they are not as high as people had imagined,.

Xue Lan, Dean of the school of public policy and management of Tsinghua University, said low incomes and work pressure hab made young people think again.

Since the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the procedure for starting a business has been greatly simplified, which offers a bigger variety of job opportunities.

"Xiaozhong" said that when the difference between working for the government and private sector is not that big, when it's feasible for people to start their own businesses, the "civil servant fever" has naturally cooled

Xue Lan does not care about how many people applied, but about the quality of those who did.

"Through research on the change of candidate mix, we can help the government better set posts and allocate manpower," he said.  

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