Information Releases

Corporate Attitudes toward FY2017 Hiring Trends

Hiring of Regular Employees at Highest Level in 10 Years
— Side jobs and second businesses effective for improving motivation and for securing and retaining human resources —

Introduction

The valid job offerings ratio in December 2016 was 1.43 times, its highest level in the 25 years and 5 months since July 1991, indicating a serious shortage in personnel. The job offer acceptance rate for new graduates increased to 85.0% (university graduates) as of December 2016, marking the 6th consecutive annual increase and the highest rate ever recorded. Also, the government is discussing flexible “work method reforms,” such as side jobs and second businesses, as a pillar of the third arrow of Abenomics. On the other hand, however, there are still disparities in employment trends between regions and industries, and between regular and non-regular employees.

Therefore, Teikoku Databank conducted a survey on corporate attitudes toward FY2017 hiring trends. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the February 2017 TDB Trends Research.

*Survey Period: February 15 – 28, 2017; Companies Surveyed: 23,804; Valid Responses: 10,082 (Response Rate: 42.4%). Note that we have conducted surveys relating to hiring each year since February of 2005, making this our 13th such survey.

*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP. (http://www.tdb-di.com).

Primary points of survey results(summary)

  1. 1 64.3% of companies responded that they plan to hire regular employees, which is the highest rate in the past 10 years and the 6th straight year the percentage has exceeded 60%. “Large companies,” in particular (83.3%), indicated a high motivation toward hiring, marking a new high since the start of the survey. “Small and medium-sized business” with hiring plans (59.0%) also rose for the first time in 2 years, and regular employee hiring is trending upward.
  2. 2 47.6% of companies responded that they plan to hire non-regular employees, marking a decline for the second consecutive year, and indicating that the motivation for hiring non-regular employees has weakened somewhat. However, over 80% of companies in the “restaurant,” “inns and hotels,” and “entertainment services” industries, which are suffering under short supplies of non-regular employee manpower, plan to hire non-regular employees.
  3. 3 As an effect of accepting employee side jobs and second businesses, companies responding that employee “retention rates have improved” rose to 26.6%, marked the highest rate. Companies also responded that “employee motivation has increased,” “employee skills have increased (contribute to main job),” “able to promote the activities of diverse human resources,” and “on-going employment (re-hiring after retirement, etc.) has increased.” They regard accepting employee side jobs and second businesses as being effective in terms of labor willingness and securing and retaining human resources.
  4. 4 The total labor cost for FY 2017 is expected to increase 2.61% on average. Employees’ salaries and bonuses are estimated to increase by approximately 3.5 trillion yen, compared to last year.
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