Changes in Corporate Employment Policies and Workers' Behavior, and Diversification of Employment Types

Chapter 2

Changes in Corporate and Workers' Behavior, and Diversification of Working Styles

Section 1

Diversification of employment types refers to the increase in various types of employment, other than regular employment. Diversification of working styles has been a medium- to long-term trend, accelerating somewhat in the late 1990s.
On the workers' side, one of the medium- to long-term factors behind the diversification of employment types is that women and the elderly have found employment on a non-regular basis. In recent years, it also appears that more workers are seeking non-regular types of employment, and that more workers are finding themselves obliged to be employed on a non-regular basis due to the diminishing employment opportunities as regular employees.
Factors on the employers' side are the expansion of tertiary industries, where there is a high percentage of non-regular employees, and more recently, the expanded use of non-regular employees by individual companies. Employers are also making extensive use of non-regular employees in order to reduce manpower costs or maintain flexibility in employment due to the growing economic uncertainty.
In terms of the impact of the expanded use of non-regular employees, companies cite advantages such as "regular employees can concentrate on more sophisticated work", as well as disadvantages such as "knowledge cannot be accumulated and passed on". Employees also cite advantages such as "regular employees can concentrate on more sophisticated work". On the other hand, they cite disadvantages such as "the extended working hours of regular employees".

Diversification of Employment Types
Diversification of employment types refers to the increase in various types of employment other than regular employment (defined as having a continuous employment relationship with a specific company and working full-time for that company).
According to the " Labour Force Survey (Detailed Tabulation) " (Annual Average Results 2002) by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT), the total number of workers was 63.19 million. Of this total, employees accounted for 53.37 million (84.4%), regular employees, 38.86 million (61.5%), and non-regular employees, including part-time workers, arbeit (temporary workers) and dispatched workers, 14.51 million (23.0%) (Figure 29). Part-time workers and arbeit (temporary workers) were 10.53 million, accounting for 72.6% of non-regular employees.
Working styles of workers other than regular employees vary in terms of wages and working hours. Working hours, in particular, are being extended among the self-employed and family workers.

Diversification Progress
Diversification of employment types is being driven by increased non-regular employment, including part-time workers and arbeit (temporary workers), rather than by an increase in the numbers of self-employed (Figure 30).
Diversification of employment types, in terms of the percentage of temporary and daily workers, has been increasing since the late 1970s in the medium- to long-term. While the pace of increase accelerated in the late 1990s for both men and women, the percentage is particularly high for women (Figure 31).

Factors behind Diversification of Employment Types
On the workers' side, one of the factors behind the diversification of employment types is that more women and elderly have become employed on a non-regular basis. Starting in about 1994, the percentage of part-time workers and arbeit (temporary workers) has increased with particularly wide margins for men and women aged 15 to 24, and for men over 65.
The recent trend appears to be that there are more workers seeking non-regular employment, as the sense of value related to working has diversified, especially among young workers. More workers are also feeling obliged to be employed on a non-regular basis as a result of diminishing employment opportunities as regular employees.
There has been a decrease, although the level is still high, in the percentage of those choosing part-time work because they "want to work convenient hours (days)". On the other hand, the percentage is increasing for those who cite the reason as "an absence of companies seeking regular employees". On employers' side, there seems to be increasing use of non-regular employment in individual companies over recent years, in addition to the expansion of the tertiary industry where the percentage of non-regular employment is high. As a result of growing economic uncertainties, other aspects of using non-regular employment include reducing manpower costs, maintaining flexibility in employment, and recruiting staff with specialty or competence (Figure 32 i), ii)).
Analysis by type of employment shows that, while employment of "part-time workers (short hours)" tend to be adjusted according to fluctuations of business, contracted staff, dispatched and temporarily transferred employees are being employed to deal with specialized work or to obtain staff with competence.
Furthermore, the number of involuntary part-time workers (workers who feel obliged to work part-time although they want to work full-time) is on the increase, reflecting the harsh employment conditions. The number of involuntary part-time workers is estimated to be 1.17 million, in February 2001, based on the "Special Labour Force Survey" by the Statistics Bureau, of MPHPT (Figure 33).

Impact of Diversification on Corporate Activities and Regular Employees
When considering the impact of greater use of non-regular employees, employers cite advantages such as "regular employees can concentrate on more sophisticated work", and "improved labour productivity". On the other hand, they cite disadvantages such as "knowledge cannot be accumulated and passed on" and "difficulties in job training implementation". Among the issues associated with making use of non-regular employees, "obtaining high-quality workers" ranked the highest.
Regular employees cite advantages such as "regular employees can concentrate on more sophisticated work", "smooth cooperation in work" and "improved labour productivity". On the other hand, disadvantages include "extended working hours for regular employees", "knowledge cannot be accumulated and passed on" and "security leak risks ".

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