戦後経済変動と技術者の労働市場参入

高専卒業者の入職パターンにおける時系列変化を中心に

抄録

The Japanese technological colleges, founded in the period of economic growth, have supplied the labor market with many engineers through their specialized education with high occupational relevance. However, because of the high degree of occupational relevance, the relationship between education in technological colleges and the labor market has been influenced by postwar economic changes. This was especially the case during the period of economic depression in late 1970s, when the number of professional engineers decreased and the number of blue-collar workers increased in graduates of technological colleges.
To the aggravation of employment, the technological colleges took adaptation strategies of exploring new labor markets in other related industrial areas and middle-size companies. As a result, the rate of graduates entering the field of professional engineering recovered in early 1980s. Nevertheless the departments of disciplines with low technical generality suffered more profoundly, since they had more difficulty in taking such adaptation strategies as changing areas of entry. Furthermore, the increment of entry into middle-size companies resulted in increasing orientation to local companies by new graduates. Although the rate of professional engineers recovered, the rate of entry into metropolitan, large-size companies did not. It seems that the technological colleges took the strategies of recovering the rate of professional engineers, which at the same time accompanied with double peripherization in company size and location.
These changes in the labor market entry pattern also influenced the occupational attitude of graduates: those who, at the time of entry, gave preference for working conditions rather than the type of work itself increased. This suggests that they come to hold more instrumental attitude toward professional works. In these respects, the adaptation strategies of technological college brought qualitative changes to the education in themselves.