# Changes in the Day-to-Day Life of Young People

## Section 1 Change in Working

Due to the decline in Japanese economy, the employment situation for young people has become very difficult; with rising unemployment rates, as mentioned in the previous section. In this section, we will examine the changes in the employment situation of young people by analyzing the progressive popularization of higher education, trends in career paths after graduation, and changes in employment systems and incomes. We will also look at changes in the young people's attitude towards working and the employment status of women, to analyze the changes in the employment situation of young people that relate to the industries of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

## (1) Changes in the Employment Situation

## (Popularization of Higher Education)

Despite the declining population of those above 18 years old due to dwindling birth rates, the high school and university enrollment rates are continuing to rise. High school enrollment rates first reached above 90% in 1974, and in recent times has been at close to 100%. University admissions increased from the 1960's until mid-1970's, then later started to rise again in the 1990's; in 2012, 50.8% (the majority) enrolled in university (Graphic 34). This decrease in the young population and popularization of higher education has been affecting employment trends of new graduates. When looking at the employment numbers of new graduates, there was a peak in 1966 with over 1.6 million employed, while in 2011 the number has decreased to approximately 0.63 million. When looking at the trend in employment by education level, in the 1950's the main population of new graduates who found employment were those that graduated from the 9th grade. This shifted to high school graduates being the main population of new graduates.

(Note) 1 High School Enrolment Rate: Percentage of people who enrolled in regular or special courses in a high school, a senior division of a secondary school, a school for students with special needs, or a vocational high school after graduating from 9th grade or from a secondary education school term course (includes those who advanced to employment; does not include 9th grade graduates from previous years).

2 University (undergraduate) Enrolment Rate (includes high school graduates from previous years): Obtained by dividing the number of people admitted into a university undergraduate program ((includes high school graduates from previous years) by the total number of people who graduated from 9th grade 3 years ago or the junior division of a secondary school.

Source) Developed by MLIT from: Ministry of Education "School Basic Survey"

graduate employees in the 1960's, and since then the number of people that found employment after graduating 9th grade decreased rapidly. In the 1990's, as the number of university admissions rose, the number of high school graduates who found employment decreased significantly. In 1998 the number of university graduates who found employment exceeded that of high school graduates (Graphic 35). By 2010, the majority of those who found employment were university graduates, at 54.3%. Recently, the number of people who found employment that also have a Master's degree has been increasing, showing that the new graduates who find employment have increasingly higher education (Graphic 36). From this, we can surmise that because the percentage of people who formerly would have started working after graduating 9th grade or high school are now continuing on in their education to pursue college degrees, there has been a developing diversification in the career paths of college graduates.