Hello Work in Japan:A Free Employment Service Center

If you are considering of finding a job in Japan, besides searching on the Internet, Hello Work is another powerful way to get job information and support for your employment.

What is Hello Work?

Hello Work is the name for Employment Service Center operated by Japanese government, which aims to match between job seekers and companies in need of work laborers. There are 544 Hello Work offices around the country with an extensive database of recent job offers available for all citizens not just young job-seekers, but also elderly people and people with disabilities and freeters.

For employers, the main services of Hello Work are human resources including job offering, introduction of applicants. Moreover, Hello Work offices are also in charge of employment insurance procedures including unemployment benefits, education training benefits etc. They also provide subsidies and benefits for employers such as grants for business owners who would like to start a business or develop into new fields, or subsidy for employers who have to perform employment adjustment.

In 2017, there were 4.95 million job seekers who newly registered with Hello Work offices and new job vacancies came to 10.24 million, with 1.55 million people getting jobs.

Features of Hello Work’s support

Hello Work offices or service windows are located in almost every corner of the country,providing employment consultations for free. Some offices specialize in support for a kind of people, such as "Hello Work for New Graduates", which provides job search support for students and young people who graduated from high school or higher education within the last three years and have little or no job experience.The support includes job openings and supporting career guidance counselors in schools and universities.There are 57"Hello Work for New Graduates" offices.

There are 210"Hello Work for Youth"offices, providing intensified job search assistance, interview training and placement to job seekers with previous experience up to the age of 45. They also provide psychologist consultations to them.There are also "Hello Work Plaza" 210 places, "Mothers Corner" 161 places, "Hometown Hello Work" 137 places, and "Human Resources Bank" 6 places.

In addition to job search information within or outside the prefecture,Hello Work offices also provide interview support and nursery school information to new graduates,freeters,unemployed person or parents during childcare. While people at age forties can barely get any help for job-seeking from normal companies, they will try to make use of Hello Work for finding a job.Other services include providing information on employment, required qualifications and experience for finding employment, information on vocational training courses, etc.

What kind of jobs provided?

Hello Work provides all working styles for job-seekers including full-time work, contract work, temporary work, part-time work and freelance. It is free for companies to post jobs on Hello Work so that huge advertising fees can be saved, which is really attractive for small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed people who want to reduce hiring costs. Therefore there are many local-oriented jobs posted at Hello Work such as office work, hospital reception, warehouse operations, large truck drivers, taxi drivers, and restaurants.

In addition, there is a trial employment incentive system to subsidize companies who have hired employees at a regular hourly rate, so companies are willing to hire people through Hello Work. On the other hand, there is little job information from big corporations or highly specialized industries that require qualification.

How to find a job with Hello Work?

Firstly register with Hello Work by going to an office. Then check job vacancies.You can go to a Hello Work office for job information,and currently you are able to access all of the information via personal computers and smartphones. There are million job offers all around Japan. The offices usually open from 8:30 to 17:15 on weekdays, and some of them also offer service from 10:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays.In addition, some offices are available until 19:00 on weekdays, so confirm the hours before you visit an office. Normally the offices are set up in each major municipality, but there are also many service windows located in downtown areas and commercial facilities easy for job-seekers to reach.

Thirdly get an interview chance for the job that you want to apply for by talking with a counselor.A counselor will help you check whether you meet the job requirements and whether you are competent to the job etc. Then a job hunting adviser will contact with the job offer company for an interview.You can get the job if you passed the interview.

In the future, Hello Work offices plan to let job-seekers apply for jobs online,appoint an interview and receive offers directly from companies after registration at a Hello Work office.

Hello Work for foreigners

Hello Work is also a good place for foreigners to find jobs in Japan.Even though some of the offices provide services only in Japanese, some of them also offer services in languages other than Japanese like English or Chinese,even Spanish, Portuguese, or other language. There are a number of Hello Work offices that specialize in support for foreigners like Shinjuku Foreigners' Employment Assistance and Guidance Center, Nagoya Employment Service Center for Foreigners, Nagoya Employment Service Center for Foreigners,and Hamamatsu Employment Service Center for Foreigners.

Hello Work offices can provide job search support and placement to foreigners based on their visa statuses and residence statuses.Moreover some offices offer free Japanese lessons for foreigners to improve their Japanese language skills.

Summary

Hello Work supports foreign residents in Japan from language lessons to multiple language service at offices and windows, to specialized offices.With adopting more information technologies into the website, the matches between job seekers and companies will become much smoother and it will turn more and more convenient for both sides to use Hello Work services. Don't hesitate to enter a Hello Work office whenever you want to get job information or interview advice.