People line up outside a national civil service exam site at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, on November 25, 2012. (Photo/China Daily)
铁饭碗
iron rice bowl
An "iron rice bowl" is a Chinese expression referring to a job with guaranteed lifetime employment in state-run enterprise or public sector.
"铁饭碗"一词用来比喻稳定的职位或部门.多指代国有企业或政府部门的职位.
A job as a civil servant in China used to mean a life-long position with an unbreakable "iron rice bowl" from cradle to grave.
以公务员职位为例,这一"终身制"的职位曾被视作是"旱涝保收"的铁饭碗.
After years of offering secure lifelong jobs known as "iron rice bowls", China's civil service is losing some of its recruits, if not facing an actual brain drain. According to a report by LinkedIn.cn, the Chinese language portal of the professional networking site, civil servants have stopped treating government jobs as a lifelong career. "Driven by social and economic reform, as well as the movement toward entrepreneurship and innovation in China, more promising job vacancies are popping up from mature private firms and multinationals," the report said.
职场社交平台LinkedIn 发布的一份报告提到："公务员已不再被视为 '终身制' 的铁饭碗.公务员辞去公职,成'活跃跳槽人群'.中国社会经济的改革,以及倡导创新意识与企业家精神的社会环境,促使越来越多的大型私企和跨国企业提供具有吸引力的就业机会."
Related news: 'Iron rice bowl' losing some luster
