Tokyo: Jobs aplenty in Japan after 16 years

These uplifting prospects have made many students wonder, even after receiving job offers from two or more firms, if they are selling themselves short.

In turn, companies are working hard to hold onto students offered jobs by, for example, holding meetings for the students with younger employees to exchange information and opinions. It is also aimed at workers fresh from college so they do not quit soon after joining.

As many companies plan an additional recruitment drive in autumn following the main spring drive for April hires, the tussle over graduates will likely continue between companies wanting to hire the best graduates possible with them trying to offer students the best incentives.

According to the Works Institute of the Recruit group, a private research firm, companies have 933,000 job openings for college students set to graduate in March. The figure is up 108,000 from the previous year, and is more than during the bubble period. As a result, this year's ratio of job offers to seekers is 2.14, exceeding the 2.00 line for the first time in 16 years.

According to research by Leggenda Corp, a human resource management consulting company, 88 per cent of this year's graduating college students have received job offers from at least one company, and 56 per cent of them have received two or more.

A 24-year-old male college student in Tokyo who secured job offers from three machinery makers said, "Offers poured in after I broadened the range of businesses I was willing to enter."

A 21-year-old female student in Tokyo who got offers from six companies, including an airline, said, "It really feels like I'm in a seller's market."

However, a sizable number of students who have obtained offers are worried over whether their would-be employers are the best choice or if they should continue searching for a potentially better job.

Some of these students have decided to also look for jobs in the autumn recruitment drive, even after they have been offered the chance to join companies in the spring.

Companies planning mass recruitment in autumn have begun inviting applicants in mid-July and will start screening applicants in September after summer holidays end at universities.

Many companies are still enthusiastic about recruiting new graduates. Hideo Shimizu, a senior administrative official in charge of student job placements at Meiji University, said, "I'm still told by major companies that they want to hire more and they want me to let them know about talented graduating students."

Companies are increasingly cautious about the possibility that students who receive offers for spring hiring may be snatched by other firms in autumn drives. The companies are trying hard to hold onto these students by easing anxieties they tend to feel before joining a company.

Staff Service Holdings, a major temporary staffing agency based in Tokyo, launched an online social networking service for students who have landed job offers. On the site, the students can exchange information to develop ties before starting work.

The company said about 70 per cent of students who received offers this year accessed the site. Except for company officials directly in charge of recruiting, no other staff, including the president, are allowed to access the site.

According to the officials, many messages on the site are about everyday college life, invitations to gatherings and other casual matters. But a 22-year-old female student said: "Reading the messages, I feel closer to other students. I'm looking forward to working at the company."

SoftBank Corp held 15 meetings for secured students of its three group firms of cell phone, fixed phone and other telecommunications services at its group head office in the Shiodome district in central Tokyo from April to July.

In question-and-answer sessions at the meetings, the students asked about the workplace and their working life in the company to young employees in their second to sixth years in the company.

One of the students asked, "How many overtime hours do you usually work?" and another asked, "Can we take vacations?" The employees answered the questions frankly.

The meetings aim to let students know the reality of working at the companies and to prevent them from quitting from expectations not matching realities.

These days, some students that have received informal job offers get nervous worrying about what kind of workplaces they will be assigned after joining companies. In response, starting in 2005, Sony Corp began telling students of likely divisions they would be assigned to when the company sent notices of informal job offers.

- By Sachio Tanaka and Kenji Otsuka

The Daily Yomiuri, Asia News Network

Publication Date: 07-08-2007