Two million send in applications for jobs in civil service

PUTRAJAYA: Some two million people have applied for about 60,000 vacancies in the civil service this year, revealed the Public Service Commission.

The number of applications, which its chairman Tan Sri Mahmood Adam had described as unprecedented, showed that Government jobs were attractive.

The vacancies comprise posts for various grades and services.

Mahmood said 219,137 people were called for interviews, of whom 143,177 turned up.

“From the total number who turned up for the interviews, 52,383 were offered jobs.

“All of them took up their job offers. While 34,112 of them were offered permanent employment, the remaining 18,271 have been appointed as contract staff,” he said yesterday.

Job security and perks such as cost of living allowance (Cola), housing allowance and housing loan offered at a low interest rate were among the attractive points to join the civil service, he said.

Civil servants receive between RM100 and RM300 as Cola depending on whether they are working in a city, town or a rural area.

For the housing allowance, non-officers, who form the bulk of the 1.4mil civil service, get RM180 while that for the officers starts from RM250.

To ensure that future applicants were well-prepared for job interviews, Mahmood said the commission would be carrying out seminars to give them an insight into the world of the Malaysian civil service.

“It is a one-day seminar and we have planned to have it throughout the country,” he said.