Changing Job Hunting-Understanding the Survey of 100 Major Companies June 1st, 20:24

Due to the spread of the new coronavirus, the form of the interview that was mainly face-to-face has changed. Before the recruitment interview for college students who will graduate next spring will start in earnest in June, NHK conducted a recruitment questionnaire for 100 major companies. From the results, we will understand what will happen to job hunting in the future. (Yousuke Ikegawa, Reporter, Ministry of Economic Affairs)

"Adopted as planned" Near 70% even in Corona

From May 19th to 29th, NHK surveyed 100 major companies in a wide range of industries such as domestic manufacturing, retail, and finance in order to understand the general tendency of recruitment interviews.

First, about hiring. While the business environment is becoming tougher, what is worrisome to students is the impact on recruitment as corporate performance deteriorates. We asked if the company would revisit its planned hiring numbers from its original plan.

“As planned” is close to 70%, but we are not optimistic. Major airlines are also moving to suspend their activities.

According to Fusako Takei, a senior researcher at the employment information company DISCO, companies may reduce the number of hires depending on future performance.

Senior Researcher Takei
"Don't expect me to pick up just because it's on schedule now. It's possible that there may be changes in the middle, so students need to firmly check with an antenna."

In fact, during the Lehman shock, it was said that the hiring of students began to be affected a year or two later, and there was a time lag before the economic downturn affected hiring.

Web interview / execution "90%" Unofficial decision "40%"

The survey also asked if the recruitment interview would be conducted online.

Many companies choose to implement a web interview in order to avoid the "risk of infection" and to obtain excellent students in a limited time. Even though the declaration of emergency has been lifted, it is difficult to proceed with recruitment activities without a web interview when we do not know when the "second wave" will come.

Next, I asked a company that replied that they would conduct a web interview if they would offer a job offer only through a web interview.

More than 40% of companies give a job offer only through a web interview without even having a face-to-face interview, but as a company, the real intention is to have a face-to-face interview at least once. One student would like to visit the company to find out about the atmosphere inside the company, and honestly there is concern about both students and the company.

It is likely that Koshi will find each other while groping.

For the first time ever, a major trading company, Mitsubishi Corporation, decided to conduct a non-final interview on the Web. Before starting, we would like to determine the correspondence and atmosphere of students by having a chat time and having a relaxing interview.

Nakagawa, Recruiting Team Leader
“The recruiting side is nervous because it is the first time for us to do a web interview. However, asking questions during an interview is a traditional face-to-face interview, such as what you have worked on and what you want to do I think some people will participate in the interview from their home in their home ground, so I want them to calmly attend the interview. "

Recruitment schedule “on schedule” 70%

Finally, I asked if the hiring schedule was on schedule.

Large-scale company briefing sessions were canceled one after another due to the spread of infection, but it can be seen that many major companies are proceeding with recruiting activities as planned, such as holding briefing sessions using the Web. ..

But experts point out that recruiting activities may take longer than usual.

“Disco” Senior Researcher Takei
“Because we are promoting recruitment activities both face-to-face and online while watching the infection situation, it is expected that even large companies will have longer recruiting activities. Hiring activity could be delayed further. ''

Not to create the "Ice age generation"

The job-hunting front has continued to be the student-dominated seller market, but the flow may change due to the spread of infection. However, we must not repeat the situation in which the “employment ice age generation” was born after the collapse of the bubble economy.

Companies are required to take measures from the perspective of how to secure valuable human resources who will bear the future and how to make the best use of them.

Yosuke Ikekawa, Reporter, Ministry of Economics
Joined in 2002
After working at Sendai and Yamagata stations, he
now covers trade and employment in the Ministry of Economics.