Landing a job is one of the biggest challenges that fresh graduates all over the globe have to deal with. This is especially true among Japanese young professionals. Despite the economic challenges of an aging population and the corresponding decline in its workforce, a recent survey conducted by Kyodo News revealed a downward trend of available job opportunities for new graduates in Japan for fiscal year 2020. The said survey projected that major companies are more reluctant to engage the services of fresh graduates in Japan purportedly because of their concerns over the economic outlook. These establishments are instead more inclined to expand the number women workers and foreign nationals in their human resources in order to address the country’s issues on labor shortage.
In a previous survey conducted last year, only 21 percent out of 112 participating companies declared that they are willing to recruit more new graduates in fiscal year 2019. Generally, companies that are more willing to hire new graduates are limited to those engaged in steel, machinery, real estate and retail sectors. Among those who joined the survey were Toyota Motor Corp, Sony Corp and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. On the other hand, another survey showed that 57 percent of the commercial businesses in Japan seek to improve its working environment in order to encourage more women workers in their establishments while 24 percent aspire to recruit more foreign workers.
Still, 60 percent of the companies in Japan admit that they are having difficulties in managing workforce shortages and in securing the needed human resources. This is mainly caused by the rapid and continuous graying of Japan’s population in view of its low birthrate. Nonetheless, one Japanese manufacturer expressed that the speedy advancement in information technology may increase productivity in the workplace and may provide a solution to Japan’s struggle with it declining labor force.
Reference: Japanese firms less willing to increase graduate intake in FY2020
