On the contrary, for mid-career hires the most common methods are public
employment security office, “help wanted” advertisements, fliers in newspapers and
personal connections(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 2001). Job experience
(management and clerical categories), technical knowledge/skills and job experience
(technical/research positions), and enthusiasm, ambition, good health and stamina
(non-clerical workers) are the most desired attributes. The purpose is to make use of
ready skills and abilities of management and technical/research candidates. Clerical
and non-clerical mid-career workers are often hired to fill vacancies left by retirees.
While small and medium-sized companies are increasingly looking for workers in
mid-career, large enterprises too are quickly coming to strengthen this trend of hiring
mid-career experienced workers. As far as hiring of company directors is concerned,
the emphasis will be on hiring mid-career workers. However, research shows that the
hiring of mid-career workers has remained the same over the years[8]. On the other
hand, the recruitment of new hires without work experience, such as new graduates,
fell slightly from 7.0 percent in 1992 to 5.7 percent, an extremely slow change.