Applications for civil service posts this year have reached such huge numbers that the information lines for particular positions are constantly engaged. A recent lecture on the civil service entrance examination in Shanghai was so crowded that buying the overpriced reference materials on sale afterward became a scrum.

The authorities claim that 1.4 million people have signed up to sit the annual examination to select government staff. The most coveted vacancy is one in the National Energy Administration, which has over 4,700 applicants.

The dismal pass rate has never dampened public zeal for an "iron rice bowl" - a metaphor for the guaranteed security of government jobs. An online survey revealed that fresh university graduates make up many of the applicants.

It's human nature to seek as much money for as little pain as one can. Therefore it is easy to see why the cream of the college crop hankers after public workers' positions.

Some of them really want to be public servants and policymakers, but most of them crave a secure position, higher social status, the chance to hobnob with bigwigs, and a guaranteed income and pension.

The side benefits of a civil service job are like sirens calling college kids onto the rocks of government.

In my university days, most of my peers yearned to be well-groomed, flashy briefcase carriers at a Fortune 500 company, working in a spectacular office building and earning a dream salary. We disdained unfulfilling and unambitious government jobs.

Yet the financial turmoil that swept the globe in recent years has smashed various notable firms, and made more companies cut payrolls or shed workforce to survive.

The corporate world's luster has faded away. Now are the best years for civil servants amid a dire economic climate. Getting a government job now is something to be envied.

Not only are college graduates vying for access to government bodies, so are experienced workers. My former schoolmate Zhou will take this year's national civil servant exam.

She decided the crudeness and cruelty of working in a private enterprise was unbearable. "My boss loved to chisel away at my overtime pay by all possible means; my welfare package has constantly been consigned to oblivion, and the much vaunted pay raise never materialized. I don't want to be involved in such dead-end jobs any longer. "