BEIJING - As many as 1.4 million people have applied for government jobs and are sitting the annual national public servant exam on Sunday.

The figure is the lowest in five years, according to a China News Service report. The actual number of people who turned up for the test is not yet available, the report said.

Civil servant jobs are favored by many Chinese as they offer relative stability, but the popularity of government posts has dropped in recent years.

Some 990,000 candidates took the exam last year, a decrease of 130,000 from the year before. Nevertheless, the exam is still considered one of the most competitive tests in the country, as there are only 22,200 vacancies in national government agencies, their affiliated public institutions and local branches.

Earlier reports said most positions open this year in government agencies above provincial level will require two years of grassroots working experience. About 10 percent of all vacancies will be set aside for college graduates who became village officials.

There were 7.1 million civil servants in China at the end of 2012.