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Text | Kaifeng

Unexpectedly, the "province with a large number of examinations" took action first.

Recently, 10 departments in Shandong Province issued opinions to start the provincialTransformation of public institutions into enterprisesThrough comprehensive reform, the corresponding public institution establishment will be withdrawn and relevant personnel will sign labor contracts with enterprises.

From a public institution to an enterprise, the difference of a few words isFrom career establishment to contract workhuge changes.

Some media stated that about 100,000 former civil servants will be affected.

Will the streamlining of the civil service establishment be widely adopted and how big will the impact be?

01

This is not the first time that public institutions have been reformed, and not all institutions are involved.

China'sPublic institutions can be roughly divided into three categories: Those who undertake administrative functions, engage in production and operation activities, and engage in public welfare services.

According to different categories,Different financial allocation methodsSome are fully funded by the government, some are funded by deficit, and some are self-supporting.

This reform mainly involves production and operation.“Transfer of business to enterprise" is the general direction.

As China's third largest province in terms of economy, second largest province in terms of population and largest province in northern China, Shandong has hundreds of provincial public institutions.There are nearly 40,000 public institutions of all sizes across cities and municipalities.

These public institutions include public welfare institutions such as schools and hospitals, as well as a large number of production and operation institutions.

The target of this reform is the provincial levelProduction and operation type public institutions.

These units are mainly design institutes, newspapers, printing houses, newspaper offices, cultural and tourism institutions, etc., not all public institutions.

In fact, this document is not the first time it has appeared;It has been implemented for 10 years.

As early as 2014, Shandong issued relevant documents on "transforming public institutions into enterprises" and started the reform of transforming public institutions.79 provincial public institutions were included.

In 2019, multiple departments in Shandong issued documents to guide some provincial institutions to be transformed into state-owned enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises or joint-stock enterprises.

This time, it is a further optimization of the previous documents, clarifying issues such as personnel relations, social security and medical insurance, original retirement age, enterprise registration, and land asset disposal, with an emphasis on comprehensive promotion.

During this period, most business-oriented institutions in ShandongThe conversion has been completed.So even ifIt affects 100,000 people, and has been almost digested.

The latest document is intended to solve the conversion issues of the few remaining units and to resolve the difficulties that arise during the conversion process.

In any case, streamlining the establishment will affect countless people. Shandong, as a province with a large number of examinations and recruitment, has a deeper understanding of this.

02

Although it is not a violent storm,Streamlining the staffing is an inevitable trend.

As early as more than ten years ago, my country began to promote the reform of public institutions. Some of them became administrative agencies, some were converted into enterprises, and some were abolished.

In recent years, the country has chosen9 provinces: Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hebei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Henan, as a pilot for the reform of public institutions.

In recent years, the reform of Shandong's public institutions has been advancing. In addition to the provincial units specifically mentioned this time, some prefecture-level citiesThe subordinate institutions have already been streamlined.

As early as 2022, Shandong officials stated that they would vigorously withdraw, merge and integrate "small, scattered and weak" institutions, and the number of public institutions included in the scope of reform would be reduced by nearly 10,000, a streamlining of 33.1%.

Shandong is not the only province that is also one of the “Four Provinces of Mountains and Rivers”.Henan,We are also working on streamlining the staffing structure.

Not long ago, Henan officials stated that the provincial public institutions will be streamlined by no less than 50%, the public institution establishment will be streamlined by no less than 30%, and the fiscal appropriation public institution establishment will be streamlined by no less than 10%. In principle, public institutions at the section level and with less than 16 public institution establishments will no longer be retained.

After this round of reforms, at the provincial level in Henan, except for schools and hospitals, the number of public institutions was reduced by 60.7%, the number of public institutions was reduced by 46.9%, the number of department-level leadership posts was reduced by 9.3%, and the number of division-level leadership posts was reduced by 25.5%, far exceeding the initial reform goals.

It can be seen that the change from "small, scattered and weak" public institutions to provincial public institutions shows that the reform of the public institution establishment has entered the deep water zone, and more and more iron rice bowls have begun to be shaken.

Behind this,Financial pressure is one, and streamlining administration is another，The third is population decline.

The reason is simple. The number of financially supported personnel should be matched with the population size. Once the population decreases, the number of staff matching it will naturally shrink.

This great change has just begun.

03

They are all stable jobs, but the value of their services is different.

As we all know, administrative staff, public institution staff and state-owned enterprise staff are often regarded as "iron rice bowls" and become footnotes of the "system".

If regarded as"Concentric circles" structure, non-staff personnel are at the outermost edge, the public service establishment is in the middle, and the administrative establishment is at the innermost layer.

In every reform, the first to be affected are the “non-staff personnel”.

At present, many places including Heilongjiang, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Anhui and Inner Mongolia have begun to lay off non-staff personnel.

Among them, Harbin has the most aggressive measures, requiring a 20% reduction in relevant non-staff personnel each year and the reduction of municipal agencies to be completed within five years.

What follows is the establishment of a professional system. Although the pressure to downsize is increasing, "layoffs" will not be done easily.

The reform of Shandong's public institutions mainly aims to transform production and operation institutions into enterprises. Although the original staff have lost their public institution positions, their contracts remain and they are still formal employees.

In fact, last yearShandong Province and cities have recruited 100,000 staff members in various institutionsThis year, it attracted more than 500,000 people to sign up, which did not damage its reputation as a "province with a strong test population".

In Henan's reform of public institutions, the streamlined staff did not disappear directly, but part of them were transferred to grassroots departments, and part of them were used in key areas such as science and technology, education, and people's livelihood.

It can be seen that although the public service system is no longer a stable job, it is still more stable than ordinary positions.

04

The innermost layer is the administrative establishment, which is also the most iron rice bowl.

At present, in addition to institutional reforms at the macro level, action is mainly being taken in counties with small populations.

Most places were largely unaffected.In some areas, the phenomenon of "enrollment expansion" has appeared.

An important reform document released recently proposed to steadily advance the optimization of institutions in small counties with small populations.

Prior to this, Shanxi, Hubei, Tibet, Anhui, Qinghai and other places have promoted institutional reforms in small counties with small populations. Many administrative departments have been abolished, merged and streamlined, the establishment of some public institutions has been reduced, and the number of people in some counties has been reduced by more than 1,000.

Even if administrative departments are merged, the number of leaders is reduced, and the administrative establishment is reduced, there will be no easy "layoffs".Digest by retiring or sinking to the grassroots.

In Hequ County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, the recruitment of public institutions is carried out by“Three Steps Back, One Step Forward”That is, only when three staff members retire can one new one be recruited, so as to gradually reduce the establishment.

However, these reforms all involve small counties with a population of less than 100,000, facing the dual pressures of negative natural population growth and population outflow, and with a relatively heavy financial burden, so they are at the forefront of the reform.

But for more cities, before the cleanup of non-staff and public institutions is completed,The blade will not easily point inward.

On the contrary, due to the retirement wave and the existence of the employment guarantee policy, the number of recruits from national to provincial examinations has increased instead of decreased, which is a rare phenomenon.“Civil Service Expansion”Phenomenon.

The 2024 national civil service exam will enroll a total of 39,600 students, a 6.7% increase compared to last year, and this is the consecutive year of enrollment expansion.

The overall expansion of provincial examinations in 2023 will exceed 10%, and the four provinces of Gansu, Yunnan, Guangxi and Inner Mongolia will exceed 50%.

Of course, this is only a temporary phenomenon.

The existence of fiscal pressure, the constraints of the total population and the need to streamline the bureaucracy will determine the quality of the iron rice bowl in the future.