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Jess Ma

Fewer civil servants quit their jobs over the past financial year, but the government will need to speed up hiring to offset the number of departures and workers retiring, a minister has said.
Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan told lawmakers on Monday the number of retiring government workers had also dropped and such jobs remained attractive in the labour market, even as vacancies remained.
“As retirement figures remain high, recruitment procedures will have to catch up,” Yeung said. “I admit that for hiring, there is room to conduct our procedures faster. We will work harder in this area.”
According to a government document, about 9,300 civil servants departed in 2023-24, including roughly 5,700 who retired and about 3,000 who resigned.
The resignation rate stood at 1.8 per cent, down from the 2.2 per cent recorded in 2022-23, which was the highest over the past eight financial years.
The document also showed about 173,000 civil servants were employed as of March this year, leaving roughly 19,000 jobs unfilled.
Yeung revealed that 40 per cent of the resignations, or about 1,200, came during the probation period.
Labour sector lawmaker Aron Kwok Wai-keung asked whether the government had investigated why so many resignations occurred so soon after the workers had joined the bureau. He suggested the government set up a mechanism for soliciting feedback during the probation period to stem early quitting.
Yeung said the Civil Service Bureau had asked the workers why they were leaving, and one common reason given was to pursue further studies, especially for workers whose jobs required a degree or professional expertise.
“Among these people were civil servants, not a very high proportion, whose performance had not been up to standard. After multiple warnings and attempts to understand the situation, they had opted to resign,” Yeung added, without disclosing the number.
In line with a suggestion raised in this year’s budget, the size of the civil service will not increase for three consecutive years as the administration cut recurrent government expenditure by 1 per cent for the same period.


Yeung revealed the year-round hiring process for clerical and secretarial officers had been accelerated, with a process that previously required 10 months now taking just four or five.
Additionally, 67 candidates had been accepted into the civil service via a recruitment programme targeting university students in their penultimate year, she said.
Government jobs remained attractive and authorities received “many” applications every year, with roughly 10,000 workers hired each year, the minister added.
While vacancies for many types of roles were easily filled, hiring administrative officers and police officers could prove challenging as many applicants did not meet the standards, Yeung said.
Lawmaker Lai Tung-kwok, a former security chief, urged the government to ramp up recruitment efforts for the disciplined services, asking why, apart from the police, they had not offered employment contracts targeting former members who had retired.
But Yeung said the other disciplined services deemed the method unsuitable for their needs.
Lawmaker Dennis Leung Tsz-wing questioned why other government departments had not set up a dedicated recruitment team to stem their manpower crunch.
The minister admitted the hiring process could be made more efficient, adding the bureau had spoken to various departments to ensure they had enough manpower to carry out hiring.


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Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung tells lawmakers recruitment process must be accelerated as retirement rates remain high


Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung tells lawmakers recruitment process must be accelerated as retirement rates remain high.
