In March 2024, half of global job seeker trends were more active than in the previous month, with a noticeable slowdown in "consulting".

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The new fiscal year has finally begun. This year, we were able to celebrate the initiation and entrance ceremonies under the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

Now, the other day, the wage increase rates of 2,620 companies were announced at the 2024 Spring Struggle. The average wage increase was 16,037 yen per month, and the rate of increase was 5.24%. This is the first time in 33 years, since 1991, that wages have exceeded 5%. Of these, the average monthly wage increase for the 1,600 small and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees was 12,097 yen, or 4.69%. This is also the highest increase since 2013, when comparisons were possible. In conjunction with the wage hikes, a number of companies also increased starting salaries for new graduates in order to secure young employees, which has become a hot topic of discussion. The wage hikes are expected to continue in the future, and competition for human resources is likely to intensify.

Let's take a look at the "Global Human Resource Trends (1)" for March 2024.
(1) Trends in Daijob.com registrants with a history of job applications and scout "interested" responses, focused on personnel with a business level or higher in both English and Japanese.

Main Topics

• Half of the occupations became more active compared to the previous month, with a noticeable slowdown in "consulting".
• Year-on-year figures were positive for five occupations, with "Consulting" and "Creative" being particularly active, as in February.

■ Half of the occupations became more active compared to the previous month, with a noticeable slowdown in "consulting".

Six occupations showed an increase in activity. Creative" (+3.8%) and "Finance/Insurance/Real Estate" (+8.9%) have continued to show positive growth since January, although not as high as the previous month. On the other hand, "Consulting" (-23.2%), "IT-related" (-11.1%), "Electrical/Machinery" (-11.9%), and "Planning/Marketing/PR" (-10.1%) slowed down more than 10%. ) slowed by more than 10%.

■ Five occupations showed positive year-on-year growth, with "Consulting" and "Creative" particularly active, as in February.

For the third consecutive month, "Creative" (+33.9%), "Consulting" (+17.7%), and "Planning/Marketing/PR" (+3.6%) have been active. Creative, in particular, continued to post significant gains. The occupation with the highest rate of slowdown was "Finance/Insurance/Real Estate" (-25.8%). Six other occupations also showed a slowdown.

Since January, the impact of major IT entertainment companies increasing their exposure within Daijob.com has remained, and both month-over-month and year-on-year, "Creative" has become more active.
In February and early March, there was an overall increase in activity due to an increase in rush applications in order to be ready to start work in March. However, especially from the latter half of March, corporate recruiting activity slowed down as they focused on accepting mid-career and new graduate hires from the new fiscal year. Similarly, job-seekers' job-hunting activities also resulted in a calm.