2018 Hiring Trends │ Supply Chain

Favourable market conditions have led to consistent growth in recruitment across the manufacturing sector as foreign companies continue to expand and enter the Japan market. As a result, we have seen significant increases in the hiring of supply chain and logistics-related talent.

There has been an overall increase in headcount across most supply chain and logistics functions. Chemical manufacturers and cosmetics companies are proactively recruiting in all supply chain functions. IT companies and consumer goods manufacturers are opening an increasing number of supply chain-related positions and we expect this trend to continue in 2018. Semiconductor businesses are slowly starting to hire again after several passive years, and we anticipate an increase in quality and factory operations positions in 2018. Hiring in indirect procurement – primarily marketing procurement – has been overwhelmingly high in both consumer and industrial markets; this area is short on candidates and companies are becoming more flexible in terms of requirements. Logistics, transportation, and shipping companies are also actively hiring sales and operations professionals.

The greatest demand in the market is currently for candidates with demand/ supply planning and forecasting experience. Companies are very flexible regarding experience in a certain industry, so these candidates tend to change industries much more frequently. Headcounts for these positions are increasing in retail, fashion, and consumer companies, and some luxury and fashion-based companies just started hiring in these functions for the first time. Consumer companies are specifically targeting young demand planners which makes the hiring process more complex, and there have been massive salary increases of as much as 15-20% for professionals in this area.

QA/QC

For professionals in the quality assurance, quality control, and production areas, recruitment of QA/QC professionals by automakers is brisk, and many of these companies are seeking bilingual professionals. Due to a lack of suitable candidates in QA/QC, companies are being more flexible in hiring young candidates with a few years of engineering experience or in some cases simply an educational background in engineering. 2017 saw an increase in QA/QC headcount in the food and beverage sector. An increasing number of companies – primarily those in the industrial sector – are seeking pricing analysts in management and non-management positions. This is the first time we have noticed this trend in the supply chain sector and there are signs of increasing headcount in this area. There has also been an increase in new entrants in the logistics, shipping, and container sectors that are setting up new offices in Tokyo and Osaka, and we expect to see growth in sales, logistics, and operations positions.

Kansai

Many manufacturing companies have established bases for both shipping and air freight in Kansai, and recruitment of temporary and contract staff for import & export-related business is increasing. Due to increasing overseas sales, companies in the trade sector are likely to enjoy further expansion in 2018.

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