A Study on the Cost and Benefit of Firms' Recruitment and Students' Job Seeking

1992年，我对日本各地的1,683家公司进行了一项问卷调查，内容是它们面向学校和大学应届毕业生的招聘活动的成本和回报。总共有537家公司对此做出了回应。这项调查的主要发现可归纳为以下三点：第一，企业招聘应届毕业生的渠道主要有两个，即院校和市场。前者可以在公司接受高中正式推荐的毕业生，也可以在公司接受由教授半正式推荐的理工科学生的地方找到。后者可以从人文、商业和法律专业的大学生中挑选，这些学生通过招聘杂志等各种公关媒体接触到他们认识的公司。其次，公司每招聘一名员工花费69.4万日元，主要用于在各种媒体上投放广告。今年找到工作的应届中学/大学毕业生达到1,554,000人。因此，公司总共支付了超过1,000，00…第三，尽管成本巨大，但市场渠道带来的好处不如机构渠道带来的好处大。对市场渠道依赖程度最高的企业群达到92.1%的成功率(招收毕业生/计划数量)，最不依赖市场的企业群达到83.6%。1993年，我对3630名应届大学毕业生进行了一项关于求职成本和主观满意度的问卷调查。总共有693人对此做出了回应。这次调查的主要发现可以概括为三个方面。首先，平均而言，他们在求职过程中节省了28.8天，花费了5.5万日元。其次，通过市场渠道找工作的人有34.6天的活动结束，而通过机构渠道找到工作的人有21.5天，明显少于34.6天。第三，两组毕业生在求职活动的主观满意度上没有差异。这两个群体普遍感到不满的是，缺乏判断有抱负的公司的内容的知识，以及对自己的见解的无知。这两项研究表明，公司和学生为市场渠道支付的巨额成本几乎是一种奢侈的支出，需要通过大学积极干预的方式来削减，比如对学生进行严谨的职业指导。较少

In 1992, I administered a questionnaire survey to 1,683 firms all over Japan on the cost and return of their recruiting activities towards new graduates from schools and colleges. In all, 537 firms responded to it. Main findings from this survey can be summarized into the following three points.First, firms hire new graduates through two main channels, namely through institutions and markets. The former can be found where firms accept graduates formaly recommended by high schools and also where firms accept science and engineering students semi-formally recommended by professors. The latter can be found where firms select among humanities, business and law college students who get in touch with firms which they know from various PR media such as recruitment magazines.Second, firms expended 694,000 Yen per one recruits mostly to run advertisement in various media. New school/college graduates who got jobs this year amounted to 1,554,000. Consequently, firms payd all in all over 1,000,00 … More 0,000,000 Yen to nourish their market channels.Third, notwithstanding this huge cost, market channels bring not so big benefits as those brought by institution channels. Those group of firms which depended most heavily on market channels could attain 92.1% success rate (recruited graduates/the planned figure), while those firms which depended least on market attained 83.6%. The lead is only 10%, and further, not significant statistically.In 1993, I then administered a questionnaire survey to 3,630 new college graduates concerning the cost of and subjective satisfaction from their job seeking activities. In all, 693 responded to it. Main finding from this survey can be summarized into three. First, on the average, they spared 28.8 days and used 55,000 Yen on their job seeking. Second, while those who sought jobs through market channels spended 34.6 days until the end of their activities, those who got jobs through institution channels spared 21.5 days which is significantly lesser than 34.6 days. Third, these two groups of graduates showed no difference as regards subjective satisfaction towards their job search activities. Both groups were commonly dissatisfied by the lack of the know-how to judge the contents of aspired firms, and also by ignorance about their own aptitudes.These two researches suggest that the huge cost which firms and students pay for market channels is almost an extravagant expenditure, and needs to be cut by active intervention of colleges in the way of scrupulous career guidance to their students. Less