One in 4 university students and new graduates in South Korea are preparing to take the state-run civil service exams mostly for job security, a survey showed Monday. 

In a poll of 1,022 university students and those who graduated earlier this year by local job portals Job Korea and Albamon, 24.7 percent of the respondents said they were preparing to sit for the state exams.

Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they were willing to prepare for the civil service exam. Only 15.7 percent said they were not considering taking the exam.

Almost 70 percent of the civil service aspirants said they were preparing for the civil service exam because of the job security provided by government jobs, followed by the post-retirement pension at 37.9 percent, and welfare and working environment at 21.1 percent.

Only 12.2 percent of them said they wanted to be a civil servant because it was the job suits them best.

Among those who are preparing to or willing to take the exam, 57.3 percent said they were eyeing the lowest-ranking positions (9th grade civil servants), followed by those preparing for the 7th grade civil servants at 21.2 percent, and fire fighters and police officers at 11.1 percent.

The majority of them, or 46.6 percent, said they would prepare for the exam for up to two years.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)