Diary

　生活困窮者自立支援制度は、従来の社会保障制度によっては救済されない、いわば「制度の狭間」にある人々を支援することを目的の一つとして2015年度に全国の自治体で開始された。2020年3月から始まった新型コロナウイルス感染症拡大（コロナ禍）において本制度は大きな注目を集め、自治体の自立相談支援窓口には困窮した市民からの相談が殺到した。筆者を代表とする研究チームは、生活困窮者自立支援事業の状況を調べるために、大阪府内自治体を対象とした調査を実施した。本論文では、この調査データに基づき以下の3点を明らかにした。
　第一に、コロナ禍を経て、本制度が「制度の狭間」にある人々への支援策として知名度を高めており、生活困窮者を支えるという役割がますます重要になっている。困りごとを抱えた市民は、自分の課題が何であるかわからず、どのような制度が利用可能かを知らないことも多い。アウトリーチを通じて困窮する市民を窓口につなげ、そして窓口につながった市民を、本制度の事業メニューのみならず適切な支援制度へとつなぐ役割が重要となっている。第二に、支援ニーズが複雑化・深刻化しているにもかかわらず、適切かつ効果的な支援策が不足している。このことを反映してか、新規相談受付が増加したにも関わらず、新規相談受付件数に占めるプラン作成件数の割合は2〜3割にとどまっている。第三に、本制度が生活困窮者の課題を広く受け止め、課題を抱える市民に伴走するだけでなくその課題解決に資する制度になるためには、種々の制度改革が必要とされる。生活・金銭支援策の創出・拡充と任意事業の有効活用のみならず、支援員の待遇改善と人材活用の仕組みの見直しが喫緊の課題である。政府による財政的支援はもちろんのこと、自治体を超えた広域の情報交換や基礎自治体への支援がますます必要とされている。

According to recent research on active labour market policies (ALMPs), it is effective to involve employers in policies for supporting vulnerable people in the labour market. This paper clarifies how Japanese local governments have established policy implementation systems to involve employers in the national programme “the Support for the Self-Reliance of Needy Persons”, based on the data from a questionnaire survey and interviews targeting local governments in Osaka Prefecture.
This paper focuses on the job placement services by municipalities and differentiate two approaches: “the vacancy-centred approach” and “the candidate-centred approach” (van Berkel 2023). “The vacancy-centred approach” empathizes with filling a company’s vacancy by finding candidates with the adequate skills and qualifications. On the other hand, “the candidate-centred approach” is a demand-oriented approach that actively involves employers in policies. In this approach, employers meet and talk with candidates and job vacancies in companies have the potential to be reshaped to suit job seekers, and policy makers play a more interventionist role in this process. The candidate-centred approach is considered more suitable for supporting people with various disadvantages.
Using these two approaches as theoretical reference frameworks, we analysed the survey data targeting local governments in Osaka Prefecture. We obtained the following two findings. First, although the ‘the vacancy-centred approach’ is being implemented by many local governments, we found that a significant number of local governments are implementing employment support projects in collaboration with local employers. Second, we identified the practical measures and challenges in getting employers involved in local government policies. Focusing on Toyonaka City and the labour intermediary organisation A´ Work Creation Centre (Osaka Regional Vocational Training Centre), we revealed that the ‘candidate-centred approach’ can bring various benefits not only to job seekers but also to employers. Specifically, we pointed out the three benefits: (1) financial incentives for hiring candidates, (2) promotion of recruitment and securing of human resources, and (3) improvement of the quality of matching between companies and job seekers. Although this approach is only being adopted by a limited number of local governments, the emergence of this approach has been confirmed in other local governments as well. Finally, we discussed the potential of the ‘candidate-centred approach’ and the challenges that need to be addressed when this approach is expanded to other local governments.

　近年の積極的労働市場政策に関する研究では、労働市場において脆弱な立場にある人々への支援のためには雇用政策に雇用主を関与させることが有効であることが指摘されている。本論文では、大阪府内自治体を対象とした質問紙調査と聞き取り調査のデータに基づき、大阪府の自治体が生活困窮者自立支援事業において自治体施策への「雇用主の関与」を促進するための事業実施体制をどのように構築しているかを明らかにした。
　公的雇用サービスによる職業紹介に関しては、「空きポスト補充中心アプローチ」と「候補者中心アプローチ」がある（van Berkel 2023）。空きポスト補充アプローチでは、企業の欠員を埋めるスキルと資格を持つ候補者を見つけることに重点が置かれる。一方、候補者中心アプローチでは、雇用主は候補者に会って話をし、その候補者に合った職務を開発する。このアプローチでは企業における求人（職務内容）は求職者に合うように作り替えられる可能性があり、そのプロセスにおいて政策担当者がより介入的な役割を担う。様々な課題を抱える者への支援に関しては、候補者中心アプローチがより適していると考えられる。
　この2つのアプローチを理論的参照軸として、大阪府内自治体を対象に実施した調査データを分析し、以下の2つの知見を得た。第一に、多くの自治体で実施されているのは「空きポスト補充中心アプローチ」であるとはいえ、大阪府の少なくない自治体が企業と連携して就労支援事業を実施していることがわかった。第二に、自治体施策に雇用主を関与させるための実践上の工夫と課題が明らかになった。豊中市と労働力媒介組織であるA´ワーク創造館（大阪地域職業訓練センター）の事例を中心に分析した結果、「候補者中心アプローチ」が求職者のみならず雇用主に様々な利益をもたらしうることが明らかになった。具体的には、（1）生活困窮者採用の金銭的インセンティブ、（2）採用促進・人材確保、（3）企業と求職者とのマッチングの質の改善という3点が指摘できる。このアプローチを採用しているのは一部の自治体に限られているが、他の自治体でもこのアプローチの「萌芽」が確認された。最後に、「候補者中心アプローチ」の可能性と、このアプローチが他自治体へと広がっていく際の課題について論じた。

Economic inequality has rapidly increased in many countries in recent years. However, there are few reports of a significant increase in wage inequality in Japan. Thus, this study focuses on employment status as a factor contributing to the rising wage inequality in Japan and clarifies the impacts of the increase in non-standard employment and changes in the wage structure due to employment status on recent changes in wage inequality by distinguishing between wage structure and composition effects, while also considering factors other than employment status. We used decomposition methods to individual data from the Employment Status Survey (1997, 2007, and 2017) separately for men and women to estimate the factors contributing to changes in wage inequality. The study found that the quantitative expansion of non-standard employment since the late 1990s and the increase in the earning power of female non-standard employees have changed wage inequality. For men, an increase in the number of low-wage workers (non-standard workers) expanded the left end of the wage distribution, which resulted in increasing inequality. For women, wage inequality increased because of the composition effect of non-standard employment and decreased because of changes in the wage structure by employment status. Since non-standard employment lowered the wage level in the middle of the distribution for women, an increase in non-standard employment widened the gap in the middle to upper levels of the wage distribution. However, compared to 1997, the effect of lowering wage levels because of non-standard employment weakened in 2007, and wage inequality decreased. This change can be attributed to the qualitative shift from non-standard employment to the core labor force.

Keywords: Recentered influence function (RIF) regressions, Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition, changes in wage inequality

Many industrialized countries have experienced increasing wage inequality and the erosion of collective bargaining systems since the 1980s. Although several studies have revealed how unions affected trends in wage inequality in western countries, little is known about their effects in Japan. This study examines whether and how unions affected trends in Japanese wage inequality for male employees between 1985 and 2015. Using data from the Social Stratification and Mobility Survey (SSM) conducted in 1985 and 2015, we conducted Recentered Influence Function (RIF) regressions on the natural logarithm of wages and an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method that can be applied to various distributional measures. We found that unions compressed the wage distribution in 1985, but not in 2015. Unions also contributed to the changes in wage distribution over this period, and composition effects linked to unions (the impact of de-unionization) increased wage inequality. On the other hand, the effects of unions’ wage structure reduced inequality at the low end of the distribution. In 1985, union membership increased wages at the low-end and middle-end of the distribution and lowered wages at the top-end of the distribution, effectively widening the wage distribution at the low end-and equalizing the wage distribution at the top-end. However, in 2015, unions could no longer impact wages. Although this wage structure effect contributed to reducing wage inequality at the low-end, this study concluded that the impact of de-unionization on increasing wage inequality was more robust than the unions’ wage structure effect.

Keywords: Unconditional quantile regressions, Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition, erosion of the Spring Wage Negotiations (Shunto)

This paper analyzes the characteristics of clients, their support needs, and their evaluation of support services, using data from a questionnaire survey and an interview survey targeting clients of the Toyonaka City Self-Reliance Support for Needy Persons. The analysis revealed the following two points. First, the clients had diverse backgrounds and were impoverished during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they relied on “government and local counseling agencies and support staff” instead of family and friends. Second, the clients with complex problems perceived the experience of acquiring a “dependable person” other than family and friends (“institutional weak ties”) as a “safety net”. Additionally, this experience encouraged the clients to keep moving forward, even if their problems were not resolved. This result indicates that “accompanied support” is practiced at the counter of the Toyonaka City Self-Reliance Support for Needy Persons, and that this leads to clients’ high evaluation of support services.

*Note
The purpose of Self-Reliance Support for Needy Persons, which has been launched in 2015, is to promote self-reliance by providing support according to individual circumstances to those who are economically impoverished and may not be able to maintain a minimum standard of living.
Municipalities are the main implementers of the system, and there are two types of support services: the consultation support for the needy (mandatory service), which provides comprehensive consultation and support to a wide range of needy persons with complex problems, and each support service (optional service), which provides support according to the situation of each person. Various types of support are provided based on the support plan for needy persons formulated by the consultation support organization.

This article provides an overview of Japanese labor studies conducted since the 2000s; it particularly focuses on studies dealing with women’s work and non-standard employment. By reviewing these studies, the article aims to show how the Japanese employment system creates and maintains economic disparities between men and women and between different employment statuses. First, a review of the literature on women’s labor indicates that the Japanese employment system is discriminatory toward women. Specifically, the article finds that Japan’s long-term employment and seniority-based systems are preventing women from developing their careers. Next, the article reviews research on non-standard employment with a focus on disparities between standard and non-standard workers and explains how differences in human resource development policies have created and maintained large discrepancies between employment statuses. Therefore, the study concludes that the established Japanese employment system causes large disparities between men and women, and in employment statuses.