Government employees in China are the unhappiest with their job compared to their compatriots in other industries, according to a survey conducted by the Institute of Psychology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the recruitment website zhaopin.com.

Among 9,072 respondents surveyed, government employees rank the last in 12 industries in terms of self-satisfaction, with workers with foreign ventures the most satisfied.

While in terms of respondents' satisfaction with the organization they work for, government employees felt more satisfied than all other peers in the survey, Li Xupei, a researcher who led the survey from the institute, told the Global Times.

Although he expected a similar result, Li said government employees still surprised researchers by ranking the last in self-satisfaction.

"It shows that though they are satisfied with their status, they feel there's a big gap between the reality (of the job) and their expectations," he said.

"This is because the public's knowledge about government jobs is misguided, as they assume government employees have good salaries and easy tasks, while in fact most of them are pressured and have a lot of responsibilities. I think that society needs to judge them more objectively," Li said, adding that being unable to vent their frustration also exacerbates their problems.

But becoming a civil servant is still popular. Some 1.5 million candidates sat the recruitment examination for State-level departments in November.

However, the job is becoming less stable. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said it is beginning a pilot project to reform the system of recruiting government employees by providing them with employment contracts, which will end the "job for life" aspect of being a civil servant.

So far, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, has already started the pilot, and Fujian and Jiangsu provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are preparing to pilot the reforms.

"Although it's not the main purpose of the reform, government positions might not be as attractive as a result, because people will lose this perk that the job is permanent," said Peng Peng, an expert in political restructuring with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences.

"Officials are very unique in terms of social status and stability, while after office hours some of them are preoccupied with networking activities, and they are also vulnerable in the cyberspace," Peng said.

"A healthy society should encourage young people to go improve the nation's economic growth, rather than swarming to this government system."