Photo/Illutration Students attend joint corporate seminars for recruitment in Tokyo on March 1. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Businesses in various industries have raised the starting salaries for new employees to secure “quality personnel” for the post-pandemic period.

Many companies in Japan have struggled as the spread of the novel coronavirus has sapped consumer spending and dampened business activity.

But the end of the health crisis may now finally be in sight, and companies are trying to bolster their payrolls for the return to normal business operations.

Taisei Corp., a major general contractor, increased the initial monthly salaries of this spring’s new employees by 10,000 yen ($78.17) from last year’s levels. That lifted the pay for college graduates to  250,000 yen, and to 270,000 yen for graduate school-educated new workers.

“It is essential for us to secure enough engineers to protect the safety of buildings and infrastructure,” a PR official of the company said.

The official also said the construction industry has been suffering from a labor shortage for some time.

“We would like to heighten the attractiveness of our industry, too,” the official said.

Kajima Corp., another major construction company, lifted its starting monthly salaries by 5,000 yen for new workers who graduated from college or graduate school.

Secom Co., a leading security service provider, also raised initial wages across the board by 3,000 yen.

“We are looking ahead to post-pandemic times,” a company PR representative said. “Automated security systems with communication and sensor devices are now popular, so we want to strengthen our engineering department for research and development.”

Daikin Industries Ltd., a major air-conditioning manufacturer, has increased its starting salaries for the first time in seven years.

College graduate recruits received an initial monthly pay of 235,000 yen, up 10,000 yen from the previous year.

“We did it to recruit brilliant staff,” a PR official said.

Daikin Industries’ air-conditioners with ventilation functions have sold well during the pandemic.

The company is expected to report record high sales and operating profits for the business year that ended in March.

Although retail businesses have been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of them have given pay hikes to their new recruits.

Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores Inc. added 10,000 yen to starting monthly salaries. New employees are now paid 222,000 yen a month.

“While base pay has increased among all employees, we also reviewed the system of starting salaries,” a PR official said.

The department store is expected to run an operating deficit of 1 billion yen for the business year ending in March. But it has put a priority on investing in its personnel.

According to a survey released by Recruit Works Institute last December, 21.8 percent of businesses “have already made efforts” to raise initial wages while 22.7 percent “plan to make such efforts.”

And for the first time in two years, the number of companies that expect to increase recruitment of graduates in 2023 exceeded the figure of those that predicted a decrease.

In fact, only 3.9 percent of the companies surveyed expected to hire fewer graduates, the lowest rate since comparable figures were first compiled for  2011 graduates.

The labor market will likely be more favorable for job seekers.

Hiroyuki Motegi, a researcher who conducted the survey, said the government has been consistently asking businesses to raise wages, and initial salaries could increase further next year.

(This article was written by Takashi Yoshida, Fumiko Kuribayashi and Daisuke Hirabayashi.)

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