People who have taken between one and six months to secure employment after being laid off have generally managed to maintain their pay levels in their new jobs, according to the results of a Cabinet Office poll.
According to the survey, which was released Monday, those who have found work within one month of losing their jobs or more than six months afterward tend to suffer bigger wage cuts.
Some 1,500 workers aged between 45 and 59 were quizzed in the Cabinet Office poll, which only covered those who lost their jobs in 2000.
The respondents were asked whether their wages had declined after they switched jobs. The poll results feature disappointing data for workers who were out of a job between 15 days and a month, along with those who were unemployed between six months and a year.
A Cabinet Office official said those who scrambled to secure new employment after losing their jobs may have been too hasty in deciding upon their new workplaces. The official added that the responses of people who were out of work for lengthy periods led interviewers to suspect they lacked adequate job skills.
Yuji Genda, a professor at Gakushuin University who advises the Cabinet Office, reckoned, "Timing appears to matter much when people who lose jobs seek new ones."