HONG KONG - The number of Hong Kong jobseekers applying to the civil service has soared, officials said Wednesday, amid widespread redundancies by private sector firms hit by the global financial crisis.

The Civil Service Bureau said it had received more than 24,000 applications for just 400 assistant clerical officer vacancies.

'Perhaps the poor economy has turned jobseekers' eyes back to the government,' a government spokeswoman told AFP.

Clerical positions in the Hong Kong civil service offer salaries of between 10,190 and 20,835 Hong Kong dollars (1,306-2,671 US) a month.

Leung Chau-ting, president of Hong Kong Clerical Grades Civil Servants General Union, said he had not seen as many applications to the civil service in years, according to newspaper Apple Daily.

The global financial crisis has severely dampened the economic outlook of the southern Chinese city, with banks and property firms resorting to laying off their staff in recent weeks to cut costs.

Jobseekers are turning back to the public sector for their 'iron rice bowl", a chinese expression to denote the security that government jobs could offer.

The government said earlier Hong Kong's unemployment rate for the third quarter had jumped to 3.5 percent from the previous quarter's 3.4 percent, warning that the situation would get worse.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Development Carrie Lam has proposed to create 40,000 building jobs by allocating 100 billion dollars for 10 large infrastructure and community projects.