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Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

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Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#81

Post by mathattack »

onion2k wrote: post #68
mathattack wrote: post #67

Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. This is inevitable as demand from the elderly outpaces young people to fulfill it.

Presumably though, as tax revenue falls due to citizens retiring, that will lead to more privatization of services as the government won't have the money to buy them, and a consequential push towards automation as service providers try to lower costs. If automation happens quickly enough it's not outside the realms of possibility that Japan's aging population could lead to fewer jobs in some sectors.

This is a lot of automation. :-) When you have 1.46 births per Mom [0] you are effectively automating a quarter of the jobs. On the surface this seems achievable, but generally automation winds up creating new needs. (The advent of tractors meant farmers were more productive, and other jobs wound up absorbing hte workers)

[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+birth+rate&rlz=1C5C...

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#82

Post by [deleted] »

Sholmesy wrote: post #52
akg_67 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually know several instances of how company expects employees to sacrifice everything for the wellbeing of company and how company takes care of employees for life. One example, during 2008 crisis, the company my friend was working for 20+ years already, was in trouble and didn't pay employees for almost a year. My friend continued to work for the company despite it being bankrupt and him not getting paid for so…

Nice anecdote, and I'm glad your friend was made whole (and then some), but this is crazy. I wonder how many times the same scenario has played out, and the company continued to spiral into bankruptcy. Separating emotion from $$$ is important for this exact reason. He owes the company nothing. Maybe I'm being overly cynical though...

[deleted]

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#83

Post by wolfgke »

richardknop wrote: post #77
wolfgke wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric that you have to consider is salary - taxes - costs of living [including health insurance] + expected future revenues [in particular pensions] Can you provide me evidence that, say, Germany, is so much worse than the USA with respect to this metric?

Germany is much worse in this metric compared to UK. I am specifically talking about London. I get contacted by recruiters from Germany (and other EU countries) quite often and they could never match London contractor pay even remotely. Germany also has higher taxes and health care coverage is comparable in UK and Germany (both have national healthcare). I think that's a microcosm of US vs EU salary situation in soft…

> I am specifically talking about London.

The living costs in London are enormous. A fellow student has a highly payed analyst job at Goldman Sachs in London, but still does room sharing in a flat somewhere in London.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#84

Post by richardknop »

richardknop wrote: post #77
wolfgke wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric that you have to consider is salary - taxes - costs of living [including health insurance] + expected future revenues [in particular pensions] Can you provide me evidence that, say, Germany, is so much worse than the USA with respect to this metric?

Germany is much worse in this metric compared to UK. I am specifically talking about London. I get contacted by recruiters from Germany (and other EU countries) quite often and they could never match London contractor pay even remotely. Germany also has higher taxes and health care coverage is comparable in UK and Germany (both have national healthcare). I think that's a microcosm of US vs EU salary situation in soft…

I don't know why this is getting down voted, it was a reasonable response to the parent explaining how even when you compare it with metrics such as taxes and other benefits (health care), it's not a very competitive deal.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#85

Post by richardknop »

wolfgke wrote: post #83
richardknop wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is much worse in this metric compared to UK. I am specifically talking about London. I get contacted by recruiters from Germany (and other EU countries) quite often and they could never match London contractor pay even remotely. Germany also has higher taxes and health care coverage is comparable in UK and Germany (both have national healthcare). I think that's a microcosm of US vs EU salary situation in soft…

> I am specifically talking about London. The living costs in London are enormous. A fellow student has a highly payed analyst job at Goldman Sachs in London, but still does room sharing in a flat somewhere in London.

I know living costs are "enormous". But if you make 3 times more money as you'd do in Berlin, it's still a much better deal.

The point I was making even in top cities in Germany (Munich for example) where living costs are also enormous, salaries are not very competitive compared to SF/NY or London (this only applies to contracting, permanent salaries are low in London).

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#86

Post by richardknop »

wolfgke wrote: post #83
richardknop wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is much worse in this metric compared to UK. I am specifically talking about London. I get contacted by recruiters from Germany (and other EU countries) quite often and they could never match London contractor pay even remotely. Germany also has higher taxes and health care coverage is comparable in UK and Germany (both have national healthcare). I think that's a microcosm of US vs EU salary situation in soft…

> I am specifically talking about London. The living costs in London are enormous. A fellow student has a highly payed analyst job at Goldman Sachs in London, but still does room sharing in a flat somewhere in London.

Plus you can work 80% remotely and live in cheaper area of London. There are more and more contracts which allow remote work lately.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#87

Post by FRex »

hawkice wrote: post #78
FRex wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this high quality[1] article/blog post I've seen before on HN in relation to software and Japan and it mentions it too: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ The paragraph starting with the sentence "Don’t have a wife?" and the next one after it mention that practice, it's too much to copy paste in here. [1] as in - lengthy, detailed and well written, but I can't judge the content itse…

That's written by patio11, who wrote the comment above.

I see.

I had no idea and he didn't link to it and the explanation there is much longer and clearer than the one line remark about Japanese boss "sourcing the bride" in the comment was. People are taking the comment to mean some medieval style arranged forced marriage.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#88

Post by watwut »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #32
mikekchar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though to be fair, arranged marriages are pretty common in Japan. Several of my friends have arranged marriages and are as happy as any other couple I know. I suppose you can think of it like online dating, where there is also an expectation that both parties are looking to get married. It would not surprise me at all that a company would pay the fees for a match maker if being single was causing a valued employee em…

I can appreciate that having work intervene is weird, but that's the culture apparently. Studies have shown having a partner increases wages and helps you live longer. And the Japanese live the longest. Strange coincidence.

Japanese marriage rates are in long term decline. They don't marry all that much.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#89

Post by ekianjo »

FussyZeus wrote: post #70
ekianjo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the problem is young people are too smart to take them up on their pitiful 700 yen per hour offers, There's a large population of chinese students in Japan who are very happy to work at such rates.

> There's a large population of chinese students in Japan who are very happy to work at such rates. > which in Tokyo barely cover your transport and lunch costs Is this another of those things where paying a person an non-livable wage is going to be construed as a Good Thing™? How about we raise the prices so the people serving us the food can, you know, live?

train is extremely cheap in tokyo and eating is cheap as well. with one hour of this kind of work you can pay for both and you just dont work one hour so the rest is profit.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#90

Post by beep_beep »

Fun fact, the Phillips curve for Japan sure looks a lot like Japan: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/working_papers/papers/qed_wp_1083...

See also the wage inflation/unemployment relationship. https://www.boj.or.jp/en/research/wps_rev/lab/lab14e02.htm/

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