Japan’s job mobility falls below OECD average
- Claire Lee
- Topics: Home Page - News, Japan, Mobility, News, Recruitment
Japan’s job mobility is less than half of that of other developed economies, which is impacting growth in productivity and wages, revealed a government white paper.
The ratio of the newly unemployed or reemployed to the working-age population averaged 0.7% for 2001 to 2019, highlighted the white paper on the labour economy, reports Nikkei Asia. In contrast, the average came to 1.5% for all members in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Job mobility in Japan fell during the pandemic, according to the white paper. In 2021, 2.9 million people switched jobs in Japan, 630,000 fewer than in 2019. Those switching jobs as a percentage of regular workers fell from about 10% to 8.7%.
In Japan, some 45.9% of workers have worked for the same employer for 10 years or longer, compared to around 30% of workers in the UK and US.
READ: Job hopping declines in Japan despite stagnant wages
The white paper also found that men in managerial positions are more hesitant to find new jobs. Although 37.7% of men at the assistant manager level express a desire to change jobs, only 13.1% are actively seeking new ones, and just 11.3% switch within two years.
