Attitudes of new employees have changed dramatically in the past decade
The attitudes of new employees have been changing dramatically in recent years. As discussed in last year's July and September issues of JIL Labor Flash (Volumes 1 and 3, respectively), recent surveys of the attitudes of new corporate employees conducted by the Sanno College (the Sanno Institute of Management) revealed that new recruits did not mind having a non-Japanese individual as their superior, but did object to having a female as their superior. The surveys also showed that an unexpectedly large number of young people support the seniority-type wage system.
The Sanno College conducted a similar survey this year, targeting 600 new
employees of 210 companies. Responses were sent in from 402 people. The
survey positioned FY1992 as the last year of the Japanese economic bubble
period, and compared the findings of the survey conducted that year with
those of this year. It concluded that the new employees' job-hunting activities
and their interest in corporate promotions have significantly changed over
the last decade.
Of this year's new corporate employees, 24% found their job-hunting activities
to have been "fairly tough," whereas only 11%-about half of this
year's number-of new corporate employees in 1992 did. In contrast, although
about 31% of the respondents ten years ago found landing a job to be "fairly
easy," only about 9% did this year.
When asked about the post they hoped to reach, 35% of the respondents ten
years ago replied that they had no interest in the matter. This year, however,
more than half of the respondents-53%-gave similar answers, clearly showing
that new employees are less eager than before to climb the corporate ladder.
The recent phenomenon of young people not joining the workforce immediately
after graduating from school, and the word "freeter" (coined
from "free" and "arbeiter," or part-time worker) were
nonexistent ten years ago. Moreover, 66% of the respondents to this year's
survey said that, although they were able to imagine what an economic bubble
was like, they found it difficult to perceive that such a thing could actually
happen and affect their lives. The Japanese saying, "Ten years is
indeed an epoch; a past" appears to be apposite here.