Job Discussion Forums

[KCorv100]

I've been here several times, always temporarily though I do like to come back for a year or so. Would someone share their experience/wisdom on the following:

1. I was first here 12 years ago and I really don't get the impression that the number of job opportunities has declined in number. This surprises me as I keep hearing about how saturated the market is now.

2. My earliest recollection of an 'average' wage was 9 years ago when 250,000 a month was the figure being thrown around - 9 years on and this seems to still be the case. Is this how so many schools are staying in business in this apparently saturated market?

[cafebleu]

Where do you live? If you live in Tokyo you will see a different situation from that in Nagoya or further afield on Kyushu, in the city of Fukuoka and its surrounds.

I have left Japan but I left when full time jobs were going down the dumper in Kyushu.

The norm is becoming that of more casual jobs (those that don't deserve the title of part time) and part time jobs. I am aware the chain schools are still employing people on the 250,000 yen per month but that too can go lower.

In my last two years or so in Japan I was surprised to see the shoddy jobs surfacing every time I looked in Fukuoka-Now, a free mag that once could give you some decent work. 'We need a teacher for 1 hour, 4 times a week' and 'We are a group of Japanese (10) of us who want to study English one and a half hours per week. Payment is 3,5000 yen per class.' 'We need a teacher for one hour per week'.

There was also a trend towards non chain eikaiwa only giving teachers one day of work a week. The owners wanted 'fresh' teachers each day (their choice I know) so very good teachers in some cases with heaps of experience etc were given 5 hours or so a week at the school in question despite their students wanting them to be there more.

As somebody who keeps in contact with old friends in Japan, both Japanese and foreign, I hear a lot about this kind of thing. The English language industry is certainly shifting away from full time work and prioritising jobs with fewer and fewer hours.

That was and is Kyushu-Fukuoka. I have heard similar things of Nagoya. Where do you live in Japan?

[Glenski]

EFL is not limited to eikaiwas, but even some of them have been closing their doors. In Sapporo, Trendy House went bankrupt, and NCB closed its doors unexpectedly.

The declining population in Japan is affecting student populations at all levels, from elementary school to university. Many schools are struggling to finance themselves, and that means cutting back. Universities are either closing or merging, and jobs go with them. Probably most university jobs are held by part-timers.

The JET programme still hires about 6000 ALTs per year, but thanks to Interac taking over a few areas like Kanagawa, JET ALTs will not have the same areas to request. A similar program at Earlham College no longer even advertises on the Internet, so I wonder if that has fallen off.

So, yes, the number of teaching positions seems to be on the decline.

As for salaries, the last 2-3 years have seen a falloff in what you might call the standard wage. Many places still offer 250K, but a large growing number offer far less (150-220K), and the sad thing is, people take it. I attribute the lower salaries to a few things:
1) dispatch companies
2) desperate teacher wannabes
3) the hopeful aims of the union to get employers to pay for shakai hoken, which may have resulted in that success in some cases, but may also have been followed by a reduction in salary to make up for the copayment the company has to make

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Don't forget


4. Sheer ignorance (on the part of the dispatched ALT). If they've never been to Japan before but some agent tells them that 220,000 a month may not seem like much in American dollars but in the inaka it'll go twice as far, then they will believe them (because they often don't do things like their own research into a situation).