Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

“Employment Strategy for the Young People” Agreed in the Employment Strategy Dialogue

1. The 8th Employment Strategy Dialogue was held on June12 and the government, business circles, educational circles and trade union circles agreed with an “Employment Strategy for the Young People” which is shaped to give support by the whole society for bringing up “big-boned” young people so as to enable them to cut open their professional lives by themselves. It is highly appreciated that, although the environment surrounding the employment of the young people is still severe and there are many issues to be solved, a course of action toward “creation of high-quality employment worth working” and “improvement of the environment in which the young people can continue to work” has been shown in the strategy.
   
   
2. “Employment Strategy for the Young People” is formulated so as to be regarded as a main policy to be preponderantly tackled at the moment for reviving the thick middle-income group proposed in the “basic strategy for the revival of Japan”. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed in the 7th Employment Strategy Dialogue held on March 9 that “together with the general examinations of existing measures, it is requested to work out effective and concrete measures which will put on the light for the future of the young people”. He instructed the Employment Strategy Dialogue to decide on the “employment strategy for the young people” by the middle of this year. In response to his instruction, the Employment Strategy Dialogue had set up a working group and carried on the examinations concretely.
   
   In the Strategy, while assuming to create high-quality employment through promoting growth strategy, are shown the subjects to be tackled by each of business circles, education circles, trade union circles and other circles in such fields as a) enrichment of gender equality education and career formation education, b) solution of employment mismatches and c) support for career enhancement.
   
   
3. RENGO had participated in the working group and endeavored for its opinions to be reflected in the proposed measures from the standpoint of “providing all the young people with good quality employment”. As a result, many of the RENGO’s opinions which intended to bolster the employment of the young people have been incorporated in the strategy. The opinions incorporated included, for example, “creation of the environment in which the young people can continue to work”, diffusion and promotion of the basic learning of labor legislation at each university and high school and building up of community consortium-type support organizations with the participation of business circles, education circles, trade union circles and other circles according to the real situation of the community.
   
   
4. With an aim to establish “a Secure Society Built around Work as its Core Theme”, RENGO is proposing to strengthen measures for youth employment as one of its main policies for FY2013. Moreover, employment issue of the young people was taken up as one of the agenda in the ILO Conference in June this year. It is now a common urgent issue not only in Japan but all over the world. Pertinent to the occasion, RENGO, economic organizations, academics and those who are concerned with the government met together in the Employment Strategy Dialogue and discussed about the employment of the young people and reached an agreement. Its significance is enormous.
   
   From now on, in order to steadily promote the measures incorporated in this strategy, RENGO will encourage its locals, as a concrete measure, to take part in the “Council for Supporting Local Career Education (tentative name)” which is incorporated in the strategy. In cooperation with all of those who are concerned, RENGO will tackle realizing the “creation of the environment in which the young people can continue to work” and other measures specified in the “Employment Strategy for the Young People”.