A new hire fresh from college receives an appointment letter from Tadashi Nomura, president of Shikoku Bank, at a hiring ceremony in Kochi on Friday. (Junichi Kamiyama)
More companies plan to hire a larger number of new graduates in 2012 than were brought on board this year, the first time in three years the trend has reversed, an Asahi Shimbun survey on employment plans showed.
However, the economic fallout from the Great East Japan Earthquake and other disasters could greatly alter businesses hiring plans for 2012.
The annual survey found 29 companies planning to hire more new graduates in 2012 than they did in 2011. In a similar survey conducted a year ago, just 15 companies said they would increase the number of new graduates hired.
Twelve companies said they are planning to reduce new hires in 2012, down from 21 in last year's survey.
Meanwhile, 39 companies said they would hire about "the same number as the preceding year," down from 48 firms in the 2010 survey.
Twenty companies said that they have not decided on recruitment plans, up from 16 the previous year.
The survey covering the nation's 100 leading businesses was carried out between late February and early March.
The Asahi Shimbun contacted businesses again by the end of March to ask whether their employment plans would change in the wake of the March 11 disasters, which are expected to wreak economic havoc.
No respondents cited a change in plans at the time of the subsequent contact.
Businesses appear "eager to employ a certain number of graduates even in an emergency," as was cited in the response from a group led by Toray Industries Inc., a maker of advanced fibers and plastics.
The increase in hiring plans was attributed to the fact that many companies had struggled with a labor shortage amid a fledgling economic recovery. Many had cut back on hiring new graduates following the collapse of asset-inflated economic bubbles in the early 1990s.
Businesses were poised to hire more than in the past two years, described as the "employment ice age," largely because their performances appeared to be on a recovery track after the plunge caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in autumn 2008.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. is among the companies that the survey found said it wanted to increase personnel in operations that have potential for expansion in emerging economies.
Among others seeking to hire more in 2012 were Toyota Motor Corp., Mizuho Financial Group, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Honda Motor Co.
Those who planned to hire fewer in 2012 include Nippon Life Insurance Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp.
However, most businesses are expected to struggle beneath the twin obstacles of heavy damage to factories and rolling power outages in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, after nuclear and thermal power plants in the region were disabled in the disasters.
If financial performances fall far below current projections, hiring plans could very well change.
Skylark Co., operator of the Skylark family restaurant chain, said, "We will likely review our employment plans to trim the number of new graduates because our whole business was affected."
A Skylark factory that supplies its Tohoku region outlets, as well as more than 20 of its outlets, was damaged in the disasters.
Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd., which runs department stores, also said it may review its hiring plan.
Similar voices echoed among companies that did not mention any change to their plans when contacted by The Asahi Shimbun.
An official in the personnel department of a major carmaker said the company will proceed with its initial hiring plans for 2012, although the number of new graduates actually hired may change.
An executive in charge of employment at a leading electronics firm said the company is too preoccupied with reopening its production lines to seriously ponder employment plans.
A leading job information company expressed concern that more companies might decide to hire fewer new employees than initially planned because of the increasingly uncertain business outlook.
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