About a third of Japanese companies with at least 30 workers are facing a shortage of part-time or full-time staff, according to the results of a recent survey by Recruit Works Institute, and many employers see little hope of fixing the problem.
The findings by the Tokyo-based institute, an arm of job information provider Recruit Holdings Co., released last week show that 30.6 percent of companies couldn't hit their target number for part-time workers, while 32.1 percent were unable to hire enough experienced full-time workers.
"There is no silver bullet to solve the labor shortage," said Akihito Toda, who was in charge of the survey at the institute. "Companies need to boost the retention rate of the workforce they already have, expand eligibility to people such as women and the elderly, and increase operational efficiency to do business with fewer workers."