‘Don’t worry about getting a job’
LEE YOUNG-HEEThe author is a Tokyo correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.
“Students getting a job? They are not worried. As many of them got multiple offers, they are debating where to go.” A Korean professor at a Japanese university told me. “My friends who are professors in Korea are most worried about students’ employment, but as a professor in Japan, I find it very easy.”
In Japan, the employment rate of college graduates in March this year, announced by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Education and Science on May 26, was 97.3 percent. It is a little lower than 98 percent in 2020 before the pandemic, but it is actually close to “full employment.”
Of course, some say that the employment rate of Japanese college graduates should not be interpreted literally. As the survey sample is 5,000 to 6,000 students from the expected college graduates willing to work, which is about 75 percent, it should not be directly compared to the college graduate employment rate in Korea, which surveys college graduates who found a job out of all graduates except those who are unable to work.
However, even considering the statistical difference, the job market in Japan is clearly better for college graduates. The media coverage is more about companies trying to attract talent than young people seeking jobs.
Many analysts say that the improvement in the job market for Japanese college graduates is not due to the revival of the Japanese economy, but rather due to the low birthrate and aging of the population. Simply put, the number of the young entering the job market cannot keep up with the number of retirees leaving companies.
As the trend is likely to continue, Japanese companies are trying to secure as many workers as possible. Moreover, as the pandemic ended this year, companies are significantly increasing new hires after the expectation for market recovery is spreading.
Meanwhile, the Korean Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational Development Institute announced in January that the employment rate of four-year college graduates in February 2021 — including graduates in August 2020 — was 64.2 percent. Whenever I saw the news of young Koreans worrying about getting a job, I thought, “It would be a good idea for them to look for a job in Japan, which is nearby.” According to the World Job Plus of the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, the number of Koreans employed in Japan through the service decreased from 2,469 in 2019 to 586 in 2021 due to Covid-19 and worsening relations between the two countries, but the number is on the rise, up to 1,154 last year. These days, many people ask, “What will improve in our lives if Korea-Japan relations improve?” If young Koreans desperately looking for a job get employed in Japan, wouldn’t more Koreans be convinced of the justification to improve relations?
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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