Feb. 2016
Corporate Attitudes toward the 2016 Economic Outlook
Regular employment seemingly peaked out while maintaining at high level
— The number of companies planning to recruit non-regular employees decreased year-on-year for the first time in six years —
Introduction
Amid a serious labor shortage, the effective ratio of job offers to job seekers in January 2016 stood at a high level of 1.28 times for the first time in 24 years and one month, since December 1991. In addition, the employment prospects for new graduates (college) rose for five consecutive years to reach 80.4% as of December 1, 2015, approaching the level of the year 2008 before the impact of the Lehman shock. However, on the other hand, there are still disparities seen in the employment trends, such as, by region, by industry and between employees and non-regular employees.
Based on these developments, Teikoku Databank conducted a survey on corporate attitudes toward employment trends in fiscal 2016. This research was conducted in conjunction with the February 2016 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey Period: February 16-29, 2016; Companies Researched: 23,189: Valid Responses: 10,497 (Response Rate: 45.3%). Note that the survey on employment trends has been conducted since February 2005, and this is the 12th time.
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP. (http://www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 The percentage of companies planning to hire regular employees exceeded over 60% for two consecutive years at 62.9%, but showed a decline from the previous year for the first time in six years. Although the hiring interest of corporations still remains at a high level, when viewed by scale, the hiring interest of small-to-medium-sized enterprises declined for the first time in six years, hinting at a sign of reluctant interest in hiring regular employees.
- 2 The percentage of companies planning to hire non-regular employees dropped for the first time in six years to 48.8%. On the other hand, the percentage of companies with no intention to recruit increased for the first time in seven years to 38.8%. Hiring trends of non-regular employees showed a recovery trend after the sharp decline following the so-called Lehman Shock, but it now appears that companies have begun to refrain from hiring non-regular employees.
- 3 Looking at the efforts carried out with the aim of hiring good human resources, the largest was “Diversifying recruitment method and the content” (31.3%). Then, it is followed by “Publication of recruit contents on their homepage,” “Enhancement of welfare system (such as special leave)” and “Separation of smoking areas and implementation of non-smoking” (more than 20%, each). Companies have diversified their recruitment targets and methods, and strengthened the welfare systems and other incentives with the aim of recruiting and securing excellent human resources.
- 4 With regard to the desirable time for the commencement of recruitment activities, while there are many answers with “We are not certain” and “We are not concerned with the start time of selection activities,” more than 10% replied that April would be desirable for the commencement of recruiting activities, given that they used to commence the activities in April. Then, it is followed by “June” in the same manner as the selection activities of the current graduates in 2017, and “March” as the official release date for graduates in 2016.