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Japanese graduates scramble for jobs as economy cools

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-02 13:09

Ice Age Rerun?

Keio Department Store, a Tokyo retailer at the jobs fair, was looking to hire 20 new graduates in 2010, down from 30 in recent years, according to Masaaki Tanaka, a recruiting manager.

Job-seekers listen to company employees giving speech at booths at a job fair held for graduates in Tokyo November 15, 2008. University students in the world's second-largest economy could face a rude awakening as the global financial crisis hits Japan, prompting firms to cut graduate recruitment. [Agencies]

Others were vague about recruiting plans, but analysts said bigger companies, known to hire new graduates en masse every spring, were expected to scale back hiring as earnings fall and uncertainties loom over the recession-hit economy.

Politicians facing an election that must be held in less than a year are putting the problem on their policy agenda.

"New employment for those who graduate the year after next is already shrinking," said Kazuo Kitagawa, a senior executive in the ruling coalition's junior partner, the New Komeito party.

"Those students are feeling anxious and we need to have proper policy steps to address this," he told a recent news conference.

Japan's jobless rate is at 3.7 percent, well below a record high of 5.5 in April 2003, although officials say that the fall is partly due to discouraged workers leaving the workforce.

Japan's rapidly ageing population also means the number of those retiring will outnumber those coming in, relieving companies of labour costs and making any job crunch much less severe than in the past.

Still, Japan can ill-afford another hiring "Ice Age".

Mainly as a result of the hiring squeeze a decade ago, 18 percent of those aged 25-34 are in non-regular jobs, government data shows. The number of "freeters", or those hopping from one low-paying job to another, now tops 1.8 million.

"There is a risk that they may emerge as a new group of 'working poor' once they no longer have their parents to support them," said Machiko Osawa, a professor of economics at Japan Women's University. "This could lead to social consequences, like bigger costs for welfare and a rise in crime."

Young job-seekers like Toshio Komabayashi, his bag stuffed with company brochures collected at the jobs fair, believe flexibility and perseverance will be key.

Though hoping to work for a textiles firm, Komabayashi knows he may not be able to be picky. "I'll be sending application forms to as many companies as I can," he said.

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