Survey: Firms eager to hire more new grads in 2024

Jiji Press

10:30 JST, December 23, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese companies planning to hire more new graduates outnumber those planning to hire fewer graduates by the widest margin on record, according to a recent private survey.

According to the survey by Recruit Works Institute, an affiliate of job information provider Recruit Holdings Co., 15.5% of responding companies said they are looking to increase the hiring of university and graduate school graduates in spring 2024 than a year before, while 3.6% said the opposite.

The margin stood at 11.9 percentage points, the largest since comparable records began in 2011.

The result showed that companies’ eagerness to hire new graduates is rapidly recovering from a slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the survey, all industry sectors saw the proportion of companies planning to increase the hiring of new graduates outpace that of those planning to decrease.

By sector, the information and communications sector logged the biggest margin, at 19.3 points, followed by the dining and lodging sector, at 17.1 points.

“Eagerness to hire new graduates is rising in growth sectors,” a Recruit Works Institute official said.

Meanwhile, a total of 54.9% of responding companies said that they plan to begin or have already begun efforts to raise starting salaries.

“Companies are responding to labor shortages by improving employee treatment,” the official said.