The number of candidates for the 2016 national civil service exam has fallen behind last year's application numbers for the same period.

Although a record 27,817 civil service jobs were being offered by central government departments and subsidiaries, the lagging number of applicants pointed toward a further dip in the appeal of civil service jobs.

The number of applicants exceeded 223,000 by the fourth day of this year's application window. However, the number of qualified applicants on the fourth day of the period last year was 233,219. The total was 275,331 in 2013 and 285,532 in 2012, according Zhonggong Education, an institute that monitors applicant numbers.

The most sought-after post as of Sunday was a position offered by the China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center, which had drawn 888 applicants, the institute said.

The second most sought-after job, according to Zhonggong, was a post offered by the regional earthquake bureau in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which had 454 applicants as of Sunday.

In 2013, the total number of applicants who qualified for the national service exam reached a record number of about 1.52 million. In 2014, the total number decreased for the first time in five years to 1.41 million, news portal people.com reported.

Li Shupeng, an analyst with Huatu Education, an agency that offers coaching services to applicants, told China News Agency that some posts are more popular than others because they do not have specific requirements regarding work experience or education.

In another sign that civil service jobs might be losing their appeal, a report issued by recruitment website Zhaopin in late March said more than 10,000 public sector employees, including civil servants and staff members at public institutions, had submitted their resumes to potential employers through the site in just two months.