The season of annual wage negotiations has started just as a large number of workers, especially irregular employees, have lost or are set to lose their jobs. Both labor and management should set their respective resolve on finding ways to protect employment.
A survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry shows that about 85,000 irregularly employed workers have either lost or will lose jobs between October 2008 and March 2009. A survey by Teikoku Databank, which covered 10,731 companies, shows that 15.4 percent of them had dismissed employees by the end of 2008 — after the current economic downturn set in — and that 22.4 percent plan to do so in or after 2009.
Even regularly employed workers cannot be too optimistic. The Teikoku Databank survey shows that 14.7 percent of the companies plan to dismiss regularly employed workers and 16.9 percent plan to lay off irregular workers in and after 2009.