General Survey on Working Conditions 2011

Press Release

“General Survey on Working Conditions 2011”

Digest of the Summary Report

Number of days of paid annual leave acquired 8.6 days, acquisition rate 48.1%
Both has increased from the previous year

20-Oct-2011 The results of the “General Survey on Working Conditions 2011” have now been tabulated and released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Results indicate a rise in the number of days of paid annual leave acquired and the rate of acquisition.
This survey aims to identify the actual situation of the working conditions of private enterprises in Japan. Private enterprises with 30 or more regular employees were surveyed in January on the situation as of January 1st, 2011. 4,296 valid responses were received of 6,145 establishments surveyed.

【Key survey results】

1 Number of days of paid annual leave acquired

“The number of days of paid annual leave acquired” was 8.6 days (previous year 8.5 days) and “the acquisition rate ” was 48.1% (previous year 47.1%), higher than the previous year.

[ Table 5(Excel: 45KB)]

2 Retirement system and retirement age

Out of the enterprises with a retirement age system (92.9%), 98.9% had a "uniform" system.
Of those, the proportion with a retirement age of "65 years or over" was 14.0% (previous year 13.3%).
When the figures are re-tabulated to include only "headquarters with 30 or more regular employees"* in order to compare with surveys of 2007 and earlier, the proportion using "65 years or over" was 14.3%, the highest since the earliest comparable data of 1968.

[ Table 11(Excel: 29KB), Table 12(Excel: 30KB)]

3 Changes to numbers of dispatched workers (new survey item)

Out of the enterprises with dispatched workers either 3 years ago (January 2008) or now (January 2011), 60.8% had a reduction in dispatched workers over the 3 years.

[ Table 23(Excel: 27KB)]

* Note: Retabulation for " headquarters with 30 or more regular employees:"

The 2007 survey and earlier covered enterprises with " headquarters with 30 or more regular employees", however this was expanded from the 2008 survey to enterprises with "30 or more regular employees" for reasons of conformity with other surveys. When making time comparisons with the 2007 survey and earlier, the figures used are retabulated to include only enterprises with " headquarters with 30 or more regular employees."