The JIL Labor Flash Vol.6
Email Journal 15.10.2001
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports / TANKAN
Current Topics
What Do Temporary Workers Think about Their Jobs?
...etc
Public Policies
Age Restrictions To Be Abolished in Principle When Hiring Employees
News Clippings
Abolishment of Age-Determined Salaries ...etc
Special Issue
Questions Raised by the 2001 Annual Report on Health and Welfare
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports September 2001-
Features
Survey on Conditions of the Worker Dispatching Business (January 2001)
Report on Employment Service (August)
Persons of Advanced Age in Japan Showed by Statistics
...etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/e2001-09.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan
-Monday October 1, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/siryo/stat/tk0109.htm
Current Topics
-What Do Temporary Workers Think about Their Jobs?-
The Temporary Work Services Association of Japan announced the
results of its survey conducted in September on temporary workers and
their attitudes to work. The survey targeted 9,151 registered temporary
workers of whom 95.6% were female and 87.5% were in their 20s or 30s.
According to this survey, while 45.2% of the respondents replied that
they wished to remain working in their current capacity as temporary
workers, another 36.6% said that they would like to become full-time
employees.
The survey also revealed that while about 50% of the respondents were
satisfied with their workplace relationships and their work, only one
in three persons was satisfied with their wage levels or with the
opportunities that their work presented for challenging their skills.
The survey showed that 67.3% of the respondents had worked for the same
employer for the past year, indicating that most temporary workers tend
to keep on renewing their contracts over multiple three- and six-month
periods.
-16% Solicited Voluntary Retirement from Workers in the Last Five Years-
The Sanro Research Institute conducted a survey of companies around
the nation on whether these companies had made use of employee transfer
and voluntary retirement measures over the years 1996 through to 2000.
According to this survey, 16.1% of the 180 companies that responded
to the survey instituted some form of voluntary retirement over the
five-year period through to 2000. This is a little over twice the figure
of 7.6% seen in the previous survey. Few of the voluntary retirement
measures targeted "ordinary employees only" or "supervisors only"-each
of these measures was implemented by only 3.4% of the companies.
Voluntary retirement measures targeting "all employees" were cited by
48.3% of the companies while measures targeting "others" (e.g., people
aged 55 through 59) were cited by 51.7% of the companies. Small companies
employing fewer than 300 workers solicited voluntary retirement most
frequently-the number of times voluntary retirement was solicited among
such companies was 149.8% of the total number of such companies. Among
medium-sized companies employing between 300 and 1,000 workers, this
figure dropped to 124.7%, while among large companies employing 1,000 or
more workers, the figure was 99.3%.
Compared with the previous survey, the number of employees transferred
increased in 43.6% of the companies. The number of employees transferred
ranged from 410 to 1,310, or between two to nine times more than the 140
to 290 persons reported in the previous survey. Also, 60.3% of the
companies set definite time limits for employee transfers, with 53.2%
setting periods of three years or more.
Public Policies
-Age Restrictions To Be Abolished in Principle When Hiring Employees-
The revised Employment Measures Law, which will come into effect on
October 1, will prohibit companies from discriminating between potential
employees on grounds of age. Because no penalties have been set, however,
not many believe this law will have any significant effect.
Specific measures introduced in the Employment Measures Law include
the payment of subsidies to employers that see over 30 employees leave
in one month and the obligation placed on such employers to establish
reemployment assistance plans for their former employees; abolishment
of employment adjustment subsidies designated by industrial classification;
and a shift in how regional employment measures are determined - the
measures are now designed voluntarily by the regions and approved by
the national government, where previously they were specified by the
national government.
Revisions have also been made to the Employment Insurance Law, the
Law Concerning the Promotion of Local Employment Development, and
the Human Resources Development Promotion Law. These revisions are
designed to allow workers to make use of reemployment assistance
while they still have a job, develop more jobs in the regions through
alliances with regional public organizations, promote voluntary skills
development among workers, and establish work skills assessment systems
so that the country can better cope with rising unemployment rates
and increased labor market liquidity.
News Clippings
-Abolishment of Age-Determined Salaries-
Nichirei, the leading frozen food manufacturer in Japan, has announced
that it will completely overhaul the company's personnel and salary
structure this October. Beginning October 1, the company will abolish
its age-determined "personal salary" structure and introduce a new
structure that takes into account the difficulty of the employee's
work and the contribution that each employee makes. Nichirei abolished
age-determined salary structures for the company's supervisory posts
last April.
Nichirei also announced that it will seek more executives from outside
the company and will set up an Intranet site by the end of the month to
provide better information on the company's new personnel evaluation
structure and skills enhancement steps and to improve the employee skills
development programs that the company has in place. Through these efforts,
Nichirei hopes to introduce a personnel evaluation and salary structure
more in line with employee potential and thereby enhance overall employee
morale.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, September)
-Two Articles on Executive/Management Wage and Benefits Cuts-
Many companies are cutting the wages and benefits of their executives
and supervisors because of the IT recession.
Matsushita Electric Industrial announced that it will make 10-30% cuts
in management benefits paid out to its supervisors above Manager level.
The company cut its executive benefits by 20% beginning in July. Such
cuts have already been introduced at Matsushita Battery Industrial and
are expected to affect about 10,000 Matsushita Group employees overall.
(Mainichi Shimbun, September)
Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced that it will cut executive and
supervisors' benefits by 30% beginning this October. In addition, the
company will cut executive salaries by 30%, cut supervisor (700 employees
at general manager or above) salaries by 10%, reduce the number of
supervisory posts by 5%, and cancel the hiring of 50 new high-school
graduates planned for next spring.
(Yomiuri Shimbun, September)
Special Issue
-Questions Raised by the 2001 Annual Report on Health and Welfare-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published its 2001 Annual
Report on Health and Welfare.
With the merger of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry
of Labour, the Labour White Paper has been renamed the Labour and Economic
White Papers
(see Labor Flash Vol. 1, http://www.jil.go.jp/emm/test1/whitepaper.htm)
and the Health and Welfare White Paper has been renamed the Annual Report
on Health and Welfare.
The Annual Report on Health and Welfare conducts extensive analyses
to identify the many problems in the Japanese health and labor market.
Some of the major topics associated with the Japanese labor situation
are as follows.
The Report identifies significant changes in how young people view
work and how employment has changed in recent years. In the last 10 years,
the number of university graduates without a full-time job has increased
six-fold to 120,000 while one in three people with jobs quit in the first
three years. The Report stresses the need to create conditions that will
allow these workers to lead more independent lives.
The Report also points out that, compared with other countries, the
number of Japanese people in old age who are willing to work is high,
despite the fact that few jobs are available to them. To solve this problem,
the Report recommends that companies shift their attention to a more
ability- and results-oriented wage system without entirely discarding
the merits of the seniority system. In particular, the Report recognizes
the need to establish a society in which the baby boomer generation, now
in their 50s and causing the disintegration of the seniority system due
to their sheer numbers, can continue working while they have the
willingness and the ability.
On the subject of sexual equality, the Report points out through its
analysis of hours taken up by housework that while it is true that
society has come to accept that women's place is also in their work,
all that has in fact been accomplished is that the traditional, "Men
at work, women at home" has simply changed to "Men at work, women at
work and home." The Report stresses the need for a greater change in
men's attitudes and the establishment of a better social environment
for women.
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/wp/wp-hw/index.html
