Will part-time jobs become a “prep school for job hunting”?

The survey found that over 90% of students had held a part-time job in the past month, and approximately 40% were juggling two or more part-time jobs. Since the survey period included summer vacation, the number of students holding multiple part-time jobs was higher than during typical periods.

Food service jobs accounted for about half of the main part-time jobs, while education-related jobs, such as tutoring at cram schools or private tutoring, accounted for 26%. Within the food service sector, chain cafes and fast-food restaurants accounted for about 30% of all part-time jobs.

Are Part-Time Jobs Becoming a "Prep School for Job Hunting"?

Dentsu Inc. held a "Tsugikuru" workshop with students. Let’s take a look at what students had to say about the "future of part-time work."

[Worksheet Overview]
As social interaction has decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of meeting people not only of the same age but also from different generations has increased. Part-time jobs, which have traditionally been valued for their pay and flexible hours, may increasingly be seen as important “opportunities to meet people outside one’s immediate circle.”

[Worksheet Overview]
When choosing a part-time job—an activity that takes up a significant amount of a student’s time—the ability to earn money efficiently has traditionally been the primary consideration. However, moving forward, gaining experiences that will be useful for one’s future will become an equally important factor in selecting a job. In the future, job postings may begin to highlight not only compensation but also the specific experiences one can gain through the work.

Through the Tsugikuru “Future of Part-Time Work” workshop, two major trends emerged when considering future scenarios.

The first is the growing emphasis on people, with part-time jobs increasingly seen as “places to build relationships across generations.” Due to the impact of COVID-19, today’s students have often faced restrictions on extracurricular activities—such as clubs, study abroad programs, and volunteer work—since their first days on campus. Additionally, with reduced hours, closures, and layoffs in the food and beverage industry, even their workplaces were limited, leading to a decline in communities that brought together people of different generations and backgrounds.

Consequently, it became difficult for students to expand their social circles by making friends and acquaintances in communities outside of school, or to reflect on their own futures by listening to people of different generations. Given this situation, now that we are gradually returning to pre-pandemic conditions, I believe part-time jobs have taken on an even greater significance as a place for building relationships.

Another factor is the growing perception that part-time work is a place to gain experiences that will lead to the future. Similar to the first point, restrictions on extracurricular activities meant there were fewer opportunities to gain experiences outside of school. Consequently, during the job hunting process for the generation that spent their student years during the pandemic, it became a topic of discussion that there were fewer stories to share about “what they focused on during their student days” (commonly known as “gakuchika”).

Given this trend, the value of experiences gained through part-time work has increased, and there are signs that the aspect of it being a “place where one can gain more meaningful experiences” is being prioritized.

A survey by Circle Up investigated the factors students prioritize when choosing a part-time job, yielding the following results.

Regarding factors prioritized in a primary part-time job, “interpersonal relationships/atmosphere” ranked second, suggesting that the importance of community within part-time work is growing.

For part-time jobs held in addition to a main job, “interesting work content/future applicability” is prioritized more than for the main job, while fewer people select “interpersonal relationships/atmosphere.”

It is expected that an increasing number of people will adopt a strategy where they choose their main part-time job based on the community they want to join, while selecting additional jobs based on the experience they wish to gain for the future and working at both simultaneously.

Considering these two trends—"a place to build relationships across generations" and "a place to gain experience that leads to the future"—the next evolution of part-time work may not be a place to earn money efficiently as before, but rather a place where one can build relationships and gain experience with an eye toward the future—in other words, it may become a sort of "prep school for job hunting."

Part-time work also creates recruitment opportunities for companies

From here, let’s consider what business opportunities might arise as part-time work evolves into a “prep school for job hunting.”

From a corporate perspective, demand may increase for industries that require teamwork or for job postings that highlight such qualities. Additionally, there may be a growing need for internship-style part-time jobs that allow students to apply what they are studying or gain practical experience closely related to their future careers.

Furthermore, part-time jobs based on industry-academia collaboration—such as joint research projects or university-spun-off ventures—could emerge as new employment models. For companies, commercializing university research would allow them to actively recruit students excelling in specific fields, expand into areas where their own research resources are insufficient, and create new businesses through the unique perspectives of students.

For students, these opportunities offer the chance to bring their academic fields to life through corporate projects. By participating in projects in collaboration with companies, students can also create communities they would not typically encounter in seminars or research labs.

On the other hand, as COVID-19 restrictions ease, it is expected that students will once again be able to study abroad or volunteer, and there will likely be a growing desire to engage in activities—including leisure—that are uniquely possible because they have the time as students. I intend to continue closely monitoring how students choose to spend their limited time and how their priorities regarding relationships, experiences, and compensation evolve.