Number of Japanese seniors looking for jobs doubled in 10 years: report

Not retiring soon: Hello Work, an employment services agency in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district, reportedly receives over 100 job seekers daily. Of these, many were “in their 70s and 80s,” a representative told Nikkei.

“Clerical jobs are popular among seniors, but job openings tend to be for work like apartment building superintendents and cleaning crews,” the representative said. Hello Work, they said, has been conducting seminars for seniors three times a month to discuss their options.

Switching trends: Hello Work said people between 25 and 29 looking for full-time positions were its largest group of job-seekers from 2001 to 2018. The past decade, however, presented a drastic shift as numbers from that group plummeted by 100,000.

According to the agency, job-seekers aged 25 to 29 dropped by 100,000 10 years ago to 196,000 from January 2023 to November 2023. Meanwhile, those 65 and above skyrocketed by 140,000 to 256,000.

Despite the larger share of senior job-seekers, Hello Work told Nikkei that their success rate is still lower at 21% compared to that of the younger group at 27%. Still, some companies experiencing long-term labor shortages are reportedly hiring more seniors.

The big picture: Japan, a nation of approximately 122.6 million people, has faced the challenge of an aging population in recent years. Last September, more than one in 10 Japanese people were reported to be 80 or older.