Japan Job Availability Decreases: Updated August 4, 2025.

Japan job availability falls in June for 2nd straight month

Article source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250801/p2g/00m/0bu/016000c

Ideas

A decrease of 0.02 is really not that much of a change but it might be trending down which might be of some concern.

Recently and for some times companies have been reluctant to hire due to increased costs and labor challenges in Japan.

These days, companies can't run deficits like they could back in the day and now they are responsible to stockholders and others who control much of what happens in a company.

The idea of 122 jobs to every 100 job seekers might sound good but what kind of jobs are being offered. Are they full salary jobs with good benefits or are they limited contract jobs with minimal benefits.

Unfortunately due to increased labor costs, automation including AI is beginning to make its way among many companies these days.

Its a shame that companies don't think of the human element and what companies are made up of, as now they treat workers and just numbers to be replaced.

As the new tariff deal has been finished companies now will have a better picture of what is going on and now can plan with more certainty.

The hotel and restaurant sector suffered the most job losses during the pandemic but maybe now they are at full personnel capacity and just can't afford to hire any more workers as new workers are expecting higher wages than before and their profits margins are maxed out.

And maybe there are similar concerns with the manufacturing sector as raw material costs have significantly increased along with companies now having to increase wages to keep current workers higher new workers.

The global economy, including the Japanese economy, is now dominated by the information and communication sector as everything related to work and many different areas in life is dominated by this sector now.

Manufacturing might still be important for Japan but even manufacturing is becoming more dominated by the ICT sector.

All sectors now have some signs of being dominated by the ICT sector and its going to spread even more.

Japan has always had a low unemployment rate but ever since 2008 there are many more jobs which are limited contract jobs and not full-paying jobs with good benefits, due to companies now having to answer to stockholders who want good profits over lackluster numbers like in the past.

Of those 800,000 people who left their jobs voluntarily some or many might have left their current job as finding a new job is now much easier in Japan than many years ago.

Many years ago you wouldn't here much are companies laying off their workers as it just wasn't part of the Japanese work culture. 

But as Japanese companies have now adapted many wester company factors layoffs are now very common in Japan these days.

Many years ago many Japanese companies were people or worker centric and saw the workers as an important stakeholders in the company. But those days seem long gone as stockholders are now the stakeholders in Japanese companies like western companies these days.

Its quite possible that Japanese companies have become very cautious about hiring due to the tariff situation as they have mostly slowed down hiring and or or new job searches are getting longer and then there is the idea that maybe many of the best jobs have already been filled as its now taking longer to find that perfect job some one is looking for.

Maybe some or many people have just given up finding a good job and with the Japanese economy not in very good shape now they are just waiting for the economy to improve.

Have a nice day!