Companies in Japan's service industries are struggling to hire and retain staff as the labor market becomes the tightest in decades, and are increasingly taking unorthodox steps to alleviate the shortage.
That can include looking to housewives and the retired to come into or rejoin the labor force. In some cases it means offering better working conditions for some staff, even if this requires raising prices. In others, companies are reducing the services they offer, perhaps by cutting opening hours, or delaying expansion plans.
Japan's jobless rate stood at a 23-year low of 2.8% in August, reflecting a strengthening economy and shrinking working-age population in a rapidly aging society.
And on Monday, the Bank of Japan's "tankan" quarterly survey showed that the ratio of companies complaining of labor shortages, rather than excess staff, was at its highest level since 1992.
The labor squeeze can reduce the speed of economic development, and even curb some economic activity altogether, hurting Japan's chances of a period of sustainable growth.
For example, at Sun Mall in Chiba, east of Tokyo, labor shortages have led some tenants to abandon plans to take up space at the site, and others to shut up shop when key workers could not be replaced, according to Seth Sulkin, president and CEO of the mall's owner Pacifica Capital K.K. He also said a new spa due to open there in a few months has been forced to push back the opening date due to staff shortages.
"The pool of people seeking part-time jobs is shrinking rapidly, particularly outside of central Tokyo," Sulkin said."We've recommended that the tenants convert some of the positions to full time and raise wages but they tell us they can't do that and still make money," he said.
"In Tokyo it's easier to hire people but it's not as easy as it used to be," he said. By contrast, "in our Chiba mall I think the location is the big issue, there's just not enough people."
With the economy at near full-employment, companies are being forced to try to find new sources of labor.
Fast food chain McDonald's Holdings Co Japan Ltd, following in the footsteps of convenience store operator FamilyMart UNY Holdings, says it will try to expand its core workforce beyond young people by targeting housewives for part-time positions.
More than half of housewives with children would like to work but are not able to find a suitable job, a survey of more than 4,000 married mothers by the Jobs Research Centre found. They were particularly concerned about long working days that don't fit with their responsibilities at home.
