Local govts struggling to attract new graduates

The recent business boom may have improved job prospects for university students graduating next spring, but it has left some local governments reporting they are struggling to compete with private firms for new employees.

Ahead of employment tests for major prefectures and cities on Sunday, the Osaka prefectural government hosted a discussion for its younger employees and students during an employment seminar to attract capable university graduates.

The Miyazaki prefectural government has tried to attract applicants with a promotion featuring popular comedian-turned-Miyazaki governor, Hideo Higashikokubaru. Yet neither government has been able to reverse the decline in the number and quality of job applicants.

Recruit Co., which operates job Web sites, estimates the ratio of jobs offered to applicants who will graduate from university next spring is 2.14:1, exceeding 2 for the first time in 16 years.
Although employment examinations for local government positions are held in late June, major private firms decided on their prospective employees shortly after the Golden Week holiday in early May.

A spokesman for Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto said many students who originally planned to become public servants will not take local government employment tests as they have already been provisionally offered jobs at major private firms.

The Osaka prefectural government plans to hire about 130 new employees next year, including for administrative posts. However, the number of applicants decreased by more than 600 last year to 2,288--the third annual decline.

Currently, one in 17 college graduate job seekers is able to find employment, compared with only one in 50 students in 1996.

In January, the Osaka prefectural government organized its first discussion sessions at major universities in the Kansai region for students to meet young government workers hired over the previous three years.

"The reaction from the students was good as they could hear about real workplace situations from employees of the same generation," said one worker in charge of recruitment. "So we thought we'd had a good response. But it didn't work as we expected."

The governor of Miyazaki Prefecture invited job seekers to join the prefectural government through its Web site. However, applicants for administrative posts decreased to 498, a 15 percent drop from last year.
A government recruiter admitted they may have relied too heavily on the governor's popularity.
"The students who left the prefecture to study in big cities sought jobs at private firms, and we failed to get them to return to their hometowns to work for the government," he said.

Naoharu Yamamoto, who handles a Web site featuring information on changing careers for civil servants, said current college students view the guaranteed financial security of being public servant as a myth, noting the deficit-ridden Yubari municipal government in Hokkaido.

"It will be more difficult for local governments to secure human resources unless they make the posts more attractive," he said.
(Jun. 23, 2007)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070623TDY04005.htm