BEIJING - China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country's securities watchdog, is to recruit more staff, of which around 70 percent will be placed in posts related to supervision.

According to a list of vacancies published for the coming 2016 national civil servants exam, 43 spots are offered by the CSRC, up from 12 in 2015. Among them, 26 are in supervision, three in enforcement and three in legal affairs.

Most vacancies require applicants to have degrees in economics, finance or law, 24 requires a graduate diploma or above.

The increasing number of supervision and legal posts is attributed to surging securities crime. In mid-June, the worst rout in years started in China's stock markets, which was followed by intensified CSRC efforts to tackle illegal securities operations such as market manipulation and insider trading.

China is also ending approval-based IPOs and switch to a registration system, which requires the CSRC to focus more on policy making and supervision, said Zhang Cheng, an securities analyst with Datong Securities in a Friday interview with Legal Evening News.

China plans to recruit more than 27,000 civil servants for national-level government organs this year, 25 percent up from last year, its largest cohort of officials ever.

More than one million applicants have signed up for the exam. There are still 253 positions, mostly below county level and in remote areas, that have not received any applications.