Report on Employment Trends for Q1

The latest effective job-opening-to-applicant ratio released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on 28 April was 1.30. The labour market remains tight during the current labour shortage.

In the first quarter of 2016, companies remained proactive in recruitment across all industries, and jobseekers also actively continued to seek employment amidst these conditions. After the end of the busy year-end period and bonus payouts, the number of job-seekers looking to change jobs before the end of the fiscal year in March increased in January, contributing to the surge in job-seeker numbers for the first quarter. A second factor that contributed to the rise in this figure was the switch to mid-career recruitment by companies that had been unable to secure the number of fresh graduate recruits they had originally planned for.

The effective job-opening-to-applicant ratio in the accommodations as well as food and beverage service industries maintained a high level throughout the first quarter, while sectors such as hospitality/wait staff (2.57 times) and food preparation and cooking (2.45 times) also posted significant increases in their ratios. The wholesale and retail industries are also growing, and there is a prominent shortage of labour in the product sales sector (1.51 times).

While demand for human resources continues to grow in the food and beverage, retail, and service industries, the increase in the number of tourists to Japan has provided a positive push. The government has raised its target for tourist numbers, which hit 21 million in FY 2015, to 40 million by 2020. In light of that, the demand for human resources is expected to rise even further going forward.

In other sectors, there has been a growth in demand for sales personnel (1.30 times) that has a direct link with sales, while inquiries concerning engineers and professionals in the administrative and management departments continue to pour in. Overall, demand is strong for the professional and technical sectors (2.02 times), including engineers for construction/civil engineering (4.61 times) and engineers for information processing/communications (2.43 times). This is backed by growing demand for human resources with an advanced level of professional knowledge in areas such as digital marketing and the development of medical equipment. Companies are continuing to invest in IT as they seek to expand their businesses, while the introduction of Big Data is progressing with the aim of achieving compliance with the “My Number” system and the scheduled introduction of VAT (value-added tax) in 2018. These factors have contributed to the growth in the recruitment of consultants and IT engineers. Demand for human resources in the medical and nursing care fields, such as public health nurses, midwives, and nurses (2.77 times) is also on the rise.

Comments by David Swan, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan:

“In particular, demand for professionals is on the rise. This group of people is receiving significant increases in salary and job offers from several companies. In the retail industry, which is exhibiting growing interest in hiring, the competition for acquiring human resources is intensifying across a wide spectrum of positions, including digital marketing, CRM, and e-commerce. There is an increasing number of positions requiring English proficiency, as well as growing demand not only from foreign-owned enterprises, but also from Japanese firms wishing to break into foreign markets. In these areas, companies are looking not only for English proficiency, but also demanding a very high level of experience and skills.”

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