Tokyo -- 28 April 2017 -- Robert Walters Japan is a recruitment consultancy specializing in bilingual professionals who are able to provide support for the globalization of Japanese corporations as well as to foreign corporations seeking to expand their businesses into Japan. We summarize data announced by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for each quarter, and release this data alongside our views.
The effective job opening-to-application ratio for March 2017 released on 28 April by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was 1.45. The average ratio for the three-month period from January to March was 1.44.
The new-job-opening-to-applicant ratios for the first quarter of 2017 remained high in medical and welfare industries (209,723 new job openings in March, +6.8% compared with same month last year), services (139,810, +7.7%), manufacturing (96,001, +11.0%), construction (74,324, +11.7%), transportation and postal mail (53,264, +12.2%), seeing an increasing labour shortage. Among the job categories, while the effective job-opening-to-applicant ratio in general administration and other administrative jobs, at 0.45, meant that there was less than one job opening for every two applicants there, professional and technical personnel including construction/civil/surveying engineers (a ratio of 5.11) and doctors and pharmacists, etc. (6.26) continued to rise. This indicates the seriousness of the mismatch in skills and tells us that many workers engaged in general administration who do not have technical and intellectual expertise are in a situation where it is difficult for them to build their careers by changing jobs.
David Swan, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan, says: “Our Company has confirmed a conspicuous rise in the level of compensation for global human resources (bilingual specialists) who are proficient in both Japanese and English and have technical and intellectual expertise in their respective fields. IT specialists related to security and risk in particular have seen pay hikes as high as 25% when changing jobs. Demand for data scientists is also growing with the progress in artificial intelligence and the increasing use of data.”
Among the job openings that our company handles, demand for human resources in manufacturing is growing firmly (compensation levels increasing by up to 20%), mainly in the automotive industry as well as the chemical industry, which uses high-performance electronic materials, pushed by business sentiment indicated by among other things the second successive quarterly improvement in the business conditions in manufacturing for both big companies and small and medium businesses, according to the BOJ short-term economic survey results. Given the diversification of business needs, there are an increasing number of businesses that are seeking human resources with multiple skills and knowledge such as sales engineers that can undertake sales operations based on their engineering knowledge and technology or human resources that have expertise in both automobiles and robotics. Furthermore, in cases such as senior level, experienced personnel previously employed by a major general contractor, now hired as O&M personnel at a renewable energy plant shows, there is active movement regarding the hiring of older, experienced personnel who are proficient in English and can handle procedures with administrative authorities. Furthermore, foreign financial institutions and others are actively hiring to supplement the age group of 30 years old or so, where there is a lack of human resources due to the reduction in hiring during the financial crisis of 2007-08.
Swan continues: “Labour shortages continued in a wide range of job categories in the first quarter of 2017. The shortage is particularly acute with specialists who have practical experience and qualifications in their professions. As the rapid industrial changes and growth in the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution take place, we expect a growth in job openings, mainly for such specialists, in the job-changing market. In the second quarter as well, we expect the number of job openings for each job-seeker who has professional skills and can speak English to be many times higher than the effective job-opening-to-applicant ratio that I mentioned, due to the rise in the demand for English language skills in an increasingly globalized market as collaboration between global companies and Japanese businesses is progressing rapidly of late, in addition to the rapid expansion of the overseas business activities of Japanese companies and the expansion of the Japanese business operations of foreign companies.”
About Robert Walters Japan (https://www.robertwalters.co.jp/)
Robert Walters was established in London, United Kingdom, in 1985. It is a specialist recruitment consultancy, and has offices in the key cities of 28 countries around the world.
Robert Walters Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of Robert Walters. The Tokyo office was established in 2000, and the Osaka office in 2007. We provide recruitment consultation services for full-time regular employees as well as dispatch and contract employees.
The strength of Robert Walters Japan lies in our expertise in bilingual specialists (professionals who are proficient mainly in English and Japanese), and we have the world’s largest database for bilingual specialists with experience, knowledge, and skills in various professional fields.
We also recommend specialists to a wide range of client companies, from leading global corporations to newly established companies, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Our expert consultants who are familiar with each industry work in teams to provide recruitment consultation services across a wide range of industries and job categories.
To request further information, please contact PR executive on 03-4570-1500 or info@robertwalters.co.jp
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