Companies short of manpower in November outnumbered those with too many workers for the first time in almost six years.
A quarterly survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry released Wednesday shows the index designed to gauge employer sentiment on workforce supply stood at 1, the first time a number has appeared in the plus column since February 1998.
The rating was minus 5 in the previous survey in August.
The index is tallied by subtracting the percentage of companies with too many workers on permanent payrolls from that of companies with labor shortages.
The survey was conducted on 5,358 randomly selected offices, shops and factories employing 30 or more workers. Fifty-four percent replied.
By industry, the index was 19 for transportation and communications businesses and 8 for the services sector. Also in plus territory were real estate, finance and insurance companies.
The index was minus 11 for construction firms and minus 3 for manufacturers. Both sectors saw the index shrink more than 10 percentage points from the August survey, however.
The index of employer sentiment on part-time workers was 11, up 6 points, indicating an increasing number of companies are short of part-timers.
Over the past year, 28 percent of the respondents overhauled their business operations, down 6 points from a year earlier.
A smaller number of companies said they responded to the contraction with workforce reductions or fewer new recruits.