Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify why some elder white-collars continue their employment after retirement. In the present Japanese society, fewer employment opportunities are left for elder persons who are willing to work after their retirement, and elder white-collars are particularly facing severe competitions in the labor market. Practically white-collars who continue their employment are selected by management. Some studies show that valuable employees for companies are those capable of dealing with uncertainties, and have long experiences in the same functional field. In this study, we examined the employability and career of elder white-collars through the case studies of two manufacturing companies. The study is based on interviews of 19 persons and personnel data of 57 persons in the two companies. The findings are as follows: 1) White-collars who are selected for continuous employment after retirement have job specific ability characterized by balanced combination of “skill variety” and “knowledge variety”. On the other hand, unselected ones do not. 2) The former has longer experience in the same functional field than the latter. The results indicated that Japanese long-term employment system is still valid from the perspective of effective accumulation and utilization of human resources which elder persons possess.
