Vol.34-No.09 September 1,1995
Around 30 percent of persons hired in mid-career were afforded lower positions and wages than proper employees who were with the firm they switched to and who had the same level of career experience, it was learned from the Ministry of Labor. 1995 Survey on Employment Management which was released recently. The survey was conducted on about 6,000 private firms with 30 and more employees to probe the current situation as of January 1, 1995, with a 82.4 percent response rate.
The percentage by job type of firms which plan to hire mid-career persons in the next three years represented 28.2 percent for those in managerial jobs, 37.5 percent for those in clerical jobs ("sogoshoku" :see* ) and 44.1 percent for those in technical and research jobs. By size of company, the smaller the size, the higher the percentage of those which plan to employ workers in mid-career in any of the job types. When asked about the grading of mid-career persons in terms of positions and wages, 28.8 percent answered they "treat mid-career employees in managerial positions and proper employees with the same level of career experience equally;" while 29.4 percent replied they do so for sogoshoku employees; and 30.3 percent responded they do so for those in technical and research jobs. The percentage of firms which "afford mid-career employees a lower grading than proper workers with the same level of career experience" represented 22.7 percent for those in managerial jobs, 36.6 percent for those in sogoshoku jobs and 27.2 percent for those in technical and research jobs. Furthermore, the proportion of companies which grade mid-career employees irrespective of whether or not they have career comparable with proper employees with the same level of career experience stood at 37.3 percent for those in managerial jobs, 25.0 percent for those in sogoshoku jobs and 31.3 percent for those in technical and research jobs. Thus, approximately 30 percent treat mid-career employees in any of the three job categories equally with proper employees with the same level of career experience, grade the former at a lower level than the latter or grade the former irrespective of the latter. On the other hand, less than 2 percent "grade mid-career employees in any of the three job categories higher than proper employees with the same amount of career experience."
As the yardstick for grading mid-career persons in the context of positions and wages, a large percentage of firms cited "strike a balance between wages for employees on the payrolls and those for mid-career employees," as well as "age" and "ability" in any of the three job categories. More specifically, "strike a balance between wages for employees on the labor rolls and those for mid-career employees" was cited by 53.2 percent, 60.2 percent and 53.5 percent, for managers, sogoshoku workers and technical and research workers, respectively. Meanwhile, "age" was cited by 51.5 percent for managers, by 58.1 percent for sogoshoku workers and by 55.1 percent for technical and research workers, and "ability" by 49.5 percent for managers, 36.9 percent for sogoshoku workers and 42.5 percent for technical and research workers. In addition, the percentage of firms which cited "professional knowledge" and "licenses and qualifications" as the yardstick for grading mid-career persons in technical and research jobs was high at 39.7 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.
*"Sogoshoku" means those engaged in core jobs and are expected to be future top executives in the firm. Many companies hire sogoshoku workers apart from "ippanshoku" workers engaged in general office jobs.
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