BEIJING — China plans to recruit about 24,000 civil servants to work for 86 central agencies and 23 institutions directly attached to them in the 2020 civil servant intake, the State Administration of Civil Service said on Oct 14.

The recruitment, the first after the country's civil servant law was revised, offers more vacancies than about 14,500 last year.

Applications will be open from Oct 15 to 24, with positions to be posted on authorized websites, the administration said.

Candidates will need to take a national written exam, which is scheduled to be held on Nov 24 across the country, while those applying for certain positions related to finance, public security, foreign affairs and other fields will take an additional professional skills test.

Political integrity will be a primary criterion and the majority of the positions in Party and government agencies above the provincial level will require two years of grassroots work experience, according to the administration.

More than 2,700 vacancies will be open only to those working in some primary-level projects, as well as veterans who have college degrees and served for a minimum of five years.

About 920,000 people took the national civil servant exam in 2018, down from 1.13 million in 2017.