Financial crisis hurting new job seekers
Written by Writer on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Financial crisis hurting new job seekers
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The global financial crisis has begun to impact student job seekers who will soon graduate from universities and graduate schools.
A 23-year-old female graduate school student in Nagoya received a provisional employment offer earlier this year from a well-known housing construction company.
But on June 4, about three months after the provisional offer, she received a call from the company’s human resources department.
She went to a coffee shop for a meeting during which a company human resources representative told her that the job offer was withdrawn, showing her graphs indicating the company’s falling profits.
According to the woman, the company official said: “A bank refused to extend loans to our company. Even if you join our company, you won’t have anything to do.”
The woman protested the decision, asking, “Why did the president offer me the job in the first place if the company was in dire financial straits?”
The company official did not answer the question and instead repeatedly apologized for the decision. The official promised to contact the woman again, but did not.
The woman then unsuccessfully began to search for a job with an architectural company.
Now she fears her only choice is to attend a vocational school to obtain a certificate as registered architect.
But the woman is worried about attending such a school because of the expense –700,000 yen to 1 million yen per year.
The woman also is worried about whether the job market will be any better when she graduates vocational school in two years.
About 10 university or graduate school students had their offers rescinded by the housing construction company.
The company earns most of its money through luxury home sales, and many of its clients are wealthy.
However, wealthy individuals have become more reluctant to buy luxury homes because of the financial crisis, and the company began to lose money.
In late August, the company applied for bankruptcy protection under the Civil Rehabilitation Law.
According to the company, the bankruptcy was a result of misjudgment by management.
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Tokyo students’ offers retracted
An increasing number of Tokyo-area college students also are having job offers retracted.
At Meiji University, four students who had received offers from four different companies between August and October had their offers rescinded. The companies include a real estate company and an information and telecommunications services company.
At Aoyama Gakuin University, one student who had received a job offer from Yamato Life Insurance Co. had the offer withdrawn when that company went bankrupt.
Another student who had received an offer to work in the general affairs department of a real estate company turned down the job after being told all new employees would have to work in sales.
A counselor at the career education center at Chiba University of Commerce has already met with three students who had job offers withdrawn and said more students likely are to have job offers withdrawn.
A 22-year-old male senior at Waseda University had his job offer at a computer systems development company withdrawn. The company’s human resources manager apologized to him at a coffee shop near his home on Sept. 17.
The manager told the student: “I’m not sure whether our company will last another six months. Please find another company.”
The computer systems development company was established about 10 years ago. The student applied to the company because he thought he would be able to better develop practical skills there rather than at a larger company.
Because of the rescinded offer, the student decided to stay in school another year and restarted his job hunt with the third-year students there.
Recalling the coffee shop meeting, the student said he would never forget the manager’s sad expression when he asked the human resources manager if he had any children and the manager said, “I do.”
(Nov. 11, 2008)
