Labor turnover

This refers to the movement of people who are the source of labor between regions, industries, and occupations, mainly through the labor market, and is also called labor migration. The movement of people across borders in search of employment opportunities (international labor migration) is also a type of labor migration. In order for labor migration to be possible, the freedom to choose one's occupation and the freedom to reside and move must be guaranteed as a prerequisite. Labor migration is basically regulated by the law of capital accumulation, but since there are various constraints on the movement of labor, the intervention of national policies may be necessary. With the development of capitalism, labor migration from rural areas to cities and from agriculture to industry becomes prominent. This is also the process of turning farmers into wage laborers and removing potential unemployed people from rural areas.

In Japan, this process accelerated during the period of high economic growth after the Second World War. Between 1960 and 1975, the number of people working in agriculture fell from 13.1 million to 6.56 million, while the number of workers rose from 22.24 million to 34.44 million. This includes an increase in people working part-time on farms (from 4.11 million to 7.32 million during the same period). The movement of labor from primary to secondary and tertiary industries, and from declining industries such as coal and textiles to growing industries such as heavy chemicals, was accompanied by interregional migration, and the labor force was concentrated in the Pacific belt area, causing depopulation, overcrowding, and urban problems. In order to remove the obstacles to labor mobility and promote this mobility, the government implemented various labor mobility policies, such as housing measures, vocational training, and wide-area job introductions.

The restructuring of the industrial structure transformed the labor process based on technological innovation, but young workers, mainly recent graduates, who were highly adaptable to this, concentrated in large companies, replacing skilled workers with long tenure. On the other hand, middle-aged and older workers showed a tendency to move downward from large companies to small and medium-sized enterprises. The lifetime employment system once seen among male workers at large companies became increasingly unstable as the economy entered a period of low growth after the late 1970s, and their downward mobility became more pronounced.

Furthermore, the movement of labor between the non-agricultural and forestry self-employed and workers cannot be ignored. As the former moved to become wage laborers due to business difficulties, there was also a simultaneous trend of the latter moving away from salaried employment to the former. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Labor Force Survey, in contrast to farmers, the non-agricultural and forestry self-employed grew by more than 1.5 million people between 1965 and 1980, from 5.45 million to 6.98 million. After that, the number of self-employed people gradually decreased (to 4.91 million as of 2009), due in part to the advance of large-scale retail stores such as hypermarkets.

During the bubble economy in the late 1980s, there was a temporary labor shortage, and as the yen appreciated, the economic benefits of working in Japan increased. This led to an increase in the movement of foreign workers from Asian countries, Brazil, Peru, and other countries to Japan. Since the 1990s, Japan has fallen into a long recession, and although this trend has been declining, it continues.

From the late 1990s to the present, there has been an increase in dispatched and contracted workers moving from areas with few job opportunities, such as Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa, to areas with production bases, such as Kanto, Tokai, and Kinki, through human resource businesses such as dispatched and contracted workers. This is a new type of labor mobility.

[Goga Kazumichi]

"Labor Mobility: Postwar Trends and Current Situation" edited by the Employment Statistics Division, Labor Statistics Research Department, Ministry of Labor (1968, Printing Bureau, Ministry of Finance)" ▽ "Study of Labor Mobility" edited by Ishida Hideo, Sano Yoko, and Iseki Toshiaki (1978, General Labor Research Institute)" ▽ "International Labor Mobility and Foreign Workers" edited by Morita Kiriro (1994, Dobunkan Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

労働力の担い手である人間の、おもに労働市場を媒介にした地域間、産業間、職業間などの移動のことで、労働力移動ともいう。就労の機会を求める国境を越えた人の移動（国際労働移動）も労働移動の一種である。労働移動が可能になるためには、その前提として職業選択の自由や居住・移転の自由が保障されていなければならない。労働移動を基本的に規定しているのは資本の蓄積法則であるが、労働力の移動には種々の制約条件があるため、国家政策の介入を必要とすることがある。資本主義の発展に伴って顕著に現れるのが、農村から都市へ、農業から工業への労働移動である。これは農民の賃労働者化、農村の潜在的失業者の排出の過程でもある。

　日本では第二次世界大戦後の高度成長期にこの過程が急速に進んだ。1960年（昭和35）から1975年にかけて、農業専業従事者は1310万人から656万人にまで減少したのに対し、労働者数は2224万人から3444万人に増加した。このなかには農家の雇用兼業従事者の増加（同期間に411万人から732万人へ）も含まれている。第一次産業から第二次・第三次産業へ、また石炭・繊維部門などの斜陽産業から重化学工業部門に代表される成長産業への労働移動は、地域間移動を伴い、太平洋ベルト地帯へ労働力が集中し、過疎・過密問題、都市問題を引き起こした。労働移動の阻害条件を取り除き、この移動を促進するために、政府は住宅対策、職業訓練、広域職業紹介など種々の労働力流動化政策を講じた。

　産業構造の再編過程は技術革新を基礎に労働過程を変容させたが、これに対する適応力に富む新規学卒者を中心とする若年労働者が、長い勤続期間に裏打ちされた熟練工にかわって大企業に集中した。この反面で中高年労働者は大企業から中小企業へ下向移動する傾向をみせた。かつて大企業男子労働者にみられた終身雇用制は、1970年代後半以降、低成長期に移行するや、しだいに動揺の度を増し、彼らの下向移動は顕著になった。

　さらに非農林業自営業者と労働者との間の労働移動も無視できない。経営難を理由に前者から後者へ賃労働者化する動きとともに、後者から前者へ「脱サラリーマン化」する方向も同時に進行した。総務省「労働力調査」によると、非農林業自営業者層は農民とは対照的に、1965年から1980年にかけて545万人から698万人へと150万人以上も増加した。その後、大型スーパーマーケットなど大規模小売店舗の進出などの影響もあって自営業者は徐々に減少した（2009年時点、491万人）。

　1980年代末のバブル好況期に一時的に労働力不足が顕著になったこと、および円高が進み日本で働く経済的メリットが大きくなったことを背景に、アジア諸国やブラジル、ペルーなどから日本を目ざす外国人労働者の労働移動が活発化した。1990年代に入って日本が長期不況に陥ったため、この動きは減少傾向にあるとはいえ、依然として続いている。

　1990年代後半から今日にかけて、派遣労働や業務請負などの人材ビジネス業者を介して、求人機会の少ない北海道、東北、九州、沖縄などから関東、東海、近畿など生産拠点のある地域に向けて移動する派遣労働者や請負労働者が増加している。労働移動の新たなタイプである。

［伍賀一道］

『労働省労働統計調査部雇用統計課編『労働移動――戦後の推移と現状』（1968・大蔵省印刷局）』▽『石田英夫・佐野陽子・井関利明編『労働移動の研究』（1978・総合労働研究所）』▽『森田桐郎編著『国際労働移動と外国人労働者』（1994・同文舘出版）』

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