BERLIN, July 24 (Xinhua) -- German graduates remain highly risk averse in their career choices in spite of the country's booming economy, a study published on Tuesday by the accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) finds.

Most respondents (41 percent) surveyed by EY in the 2018 "Student Study" indicated that they were keen to pursue a career in the public sector, up from 32 percent in 2016. As a consequence, the government was the by far most popular employer among graduates, followed by cultural institutions (22 percent) and scholarship (20 percent).

At the same time, the attractiveness of German carmakers to potential new recruits declined dramatically. Only eight percent of respondents said that they wanted to work in the scandal-ridden automotive industry in 2018, compared to 22 percent in 2016.

More than half of respondents (57 percent) pointed to jobs security as the decisive factor in choosing an employer, while 44 percent said that they were mainly guided by financial considerations.

The findings confirmed a longer-standing trend already observed in several other studies which has sparked fears that Germany is raising a generation of civil servants with little entrepreneurial ambition. The experience of the 2007/08 financial crisis is hereby seen to have eroded faith among young citizens in the capitalist system as a whole.

"On the one hand it is obviously a positive development if many of the best students wanted to enter public service. However, it also raises questions as to why the free market is not attractive to many young people in spite of offering better pay", EY human resources director Oliver Simon commented on the study.

Simon expressed surprise that the lure of the government to graduates had not weakened throughout recent years of strong growth in Germany. It was "confusing", in his view, that respondents still placed such an emphasis on security and shied away risks given that they had experienced a sustained economic expansion throughout their studies.

According to the EY human resources director, one potential explanation for the phenomenon was that many industries were currently undergoing a process of far-reaching structural change. "The public sector can then look like a haven of stability in the midst of chaos and change", Simon opined.

Simon argued, however, that Germany owed largely its international success to innovations which had occurred in the private sector. It was therefore in the interest of the country as well as these employers to enhance the attraction of these jobs again.

"Companies should think about how they can continue to appeal to entry-level professionals. Money alone will not suffice", Simon said.