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March 10, 2025 | 11:16 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A labor crisis has hit several companies in Japan. The shortage of full-time workers is the worst since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, cited by Antara, that of some 11,000 companies surveyed in January, as many as 53.4 percent said they needed more full-time workers, the highest since April 2020. According to the survey by Teikoku Databank Ltd., the percentage was approaching the all-time high of 53.9 percent in November 2018.
Information services, which has a shortage of systems engineers, is the sector with the most need for full-time workers, followed by construction. The survey also found that 30.6 percent of companies lack part-time workers, with temporary staffing agencies experiencing the most severe shortage of non-regular workers, followed by restaurants.
The survey comes as economists monitor whether last year's strong wage growth continues. Major Japanese companies are set to decide their response to labor union demands for wage hikes by settling their annual "shunto" negotiations later this month.
According to the research institute, around 68.1 percent of companies affected by the labor crisis plan to raise wages for full-time workers in fiscal year 2025, which begins in April, apparently to attract and retain the workers they need.
Meanwhile, economists warn that small and medium-sized enterprises will struggle to keep up with larger companies with the financial resources to continue raising wages.
"We need to be wary of the risk of more companies going bankrupt due to labor crisis," said the research institution, noting that such bankruptcies reached their highest level in 2024.
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