42% of Japanese Firms Miss 2012 Recruiting Targets

About 42% of Japanese firms have failed to recruit enough new graduates for the fiscal year beginning next April, according to a recent a job information service survey. This result comes as something of a surprise given the large percentage of graduating seniors who have failed to find jobs.

Mynavi Corp.‘s research center surveyed 8,000 firms from August to September and received responses from 1,757.

The percentage of firms who were dissatisfied with the number of their prospective recruits rose 11.9% from last year to 41.6%. About 12% said they are dissatisfied with both the quality and quantity of prospective recruits while 29.7% are unhappy with only the quantity.

The percentage of firms satisfied with both the quality and quantity fell 6.1% to 40.1%. Among listed corporations 42.9% reported being dissatisfied with the quantity of engineers they were able to recruit, up 14.5 points from last year.

Nearly half of Japan’s employers are having trouble finding qualified applicants but are ending recruitment efforts short of target numbers rather than hire applicants who fall short of their qualifications.