The JIL Labor Flash Vol.28
Email Journal 01.10.2002
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Two fact-finding surveys on progress towards a gender-equal society
Public Policies
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's countermeasures to
the worsening job opportunities for and the employment situation
faced by high and middle school graduates
News Clippings
Matsuzakaya to increase or decrease basic pay based on performance
...etc
Special Issue
Corporate activities and results of the settlement of FY2002 spring
joint labor negotiations
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators September 2002-
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/eshuyo/200209/econtents.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Entreprises in Japan
-Tuesday October 1, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/siryo/stat/tk0209.htm
Current Topics
-Two fact-finding surveys on progress towards a gender-equal society-
In July, the Cabinet Office conducted an opinion poll on a gender
-equal society. The poll was an interview survey targeting 5,000 people
over the age of 20. Effective responses were sent in from 3,561 people
(response rate: 71.2%).
The survey found that 47% of respondents agreed with the view that
husbands should work outside the home, and wives should stay home and
raise the family, about 10 percentage points lower than the 57.8%
recorded in a similar survey conducted five years ago.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002b/vol.28/gender.html
Public Policies
-The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's countermeasures to
the worsening job opportunities for and the employment situation
faced by high and middle school graduates-
According to the status of job opportunities and rate of success
in job seeking by individuals planning to graduate from high and middle
schools next spring, announced in September by the Ministry of Health,
Labour and Welfare, the job opening-to-application ratio has further
worsened. A total of 231,000 prospective high school graduates were
seeking work, while only 115,000 jobs were offered, making the job
opening-to-application ratio 0.50. This was 0.11% lower than the
worst-ever ratio recorded during the same period last year. Similarly,
5,700 prospective middle school graduates were seeking jobs, down 6.7%
from the same month the previous year, and only 800 jobs were offered,
down 31.2% from the same month the previous year. As a result, the job
opportunities/application ratio fell by 0.05% to 0.14.
In reaction to these results, the Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare has decided to set up a "Comprehensive Program to Assist the
Employment of New High School Graduates". Under this program, staff
exclusively in charge of promoting the development of job opportunities
for school graduates will be appointed to work in labor bureaus of areas
where the job opportunity situation is particularly severe. These staff
members will visit companies and other business offices, along with
school personnel in charge of employment guidance, to request them to
create opportunities for jobseekers.
As already reported in JIL Volumes 26 and 27, the Ministry of Health,
Labour and Welfare is kept more than busy coping with the sharp increase
in the number of youths who neither proceed to higher education nor
take up employment. Attempts are being made to provide them with
opportunities to undergo vocational training and to implement programs
and budgets to increase their vocational skills.
News Clippings
-Matsuzakaya to increase or decrease basic pay based on performance-
Matsuzakaya, a highly reputed department store founded 350 years
ago, will introduce a new salary system next March targeting chief
clerks and higher. Under the new system, base pay portion will increase
or decrease depending on their performance over the previous year.
As a result of these evaluations, section managers can receive up to
500,000 yen yearly more than others of similar rank. With the shift
to this new system, the existing system of periodic and automatic pay
raises will be abolished. Matsuzakaya will also set up a system to
assist employees aged 45 and older to switch jobs. Targeted employees
will receive 80% of their basic wages, and be given a maximum 6-month
"assistance holiday" during which they will be able to look for new work.
The labor union is planning to accept this new system.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, September)
-In-house 'Free Agents'increase-
A growing number of companies are embracing the system of allowing
employees to indicate the department they wish to work in. They may
be transferred if their request matches the requirements of the receiving
department. This system resembles the one seen in professional baseball
where players declare that they have become free agents.
As far as companies go, this is an attempt to accommodate the wishes
of the employees in terms of personnel policy and to enable them to
work with conviction and satisfaction, while strengthening the performance
-oriented wage system. There are cases, however, where an employee
requesting a transfer of department may cause friction with his or
her superior. It appears that things do not work out so well for
employees who switch from one department to another, regardless of
what others think.
(Asahi Shimbun, September)
-Sharp increase in number of people taking up agriculture for the
first time-
The lingering recession is giving rise to a growing number of urban
salaried workers who resign their jobs and move house to take up farming.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, the number of new farmers who have switched from other
industries has shown an increasing trend from the latter half of the
1990s. The number topped 60,000 people per year in 1998, then reached
about 75,000 in 2000. Of these, about 53,200 people were middle aged
and elderly individuals (aged 40 and older) in 1998, and about 65,800
people in 2000, showing that interest in taking up agriculture
professionally is growing each year among middle-aged and elderly
individuals. With the employment situation remaining tough, expectations
for agriculture as a source of new employment opportunities are rising
steadily.
(Komei Shimbun, September)
Special Issue
-Corporate activities and results of the settlement of FY2002 spring
joint labor negotiations-
It is customary for both the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
and various labor-management organizations to release their own reports
on the final settlement results of the spring joint labor negotiations.
With the deflationary trend gathering pace, and drastic layoffs and
other corporate restructuring becoming rampant, demanding sufficient
wage hikes seemed out of the question, even from the outset of the
negotiations. As expected, compilation results showed that all the
companies decided to raise employee wages on a latter-half level of 1%,
which were record low figures.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2002b/vol.28/labornegotiation.html
