Abstract
The rate of students entering graduate school in Japan remains low, especially in the humanities and social sciences. This study analysed the recruitment patterns of new graduates with master’s degrees in humanities and social sciences at major companies as a background factor. A consideration based on the 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025 editions of “Shushoku Shikiho,” published by Toyo Keizai Inc., showed that no upward trend was observed in the percentage of firms employing master’s degree holders in humanities and social sciences, regardless of the company’s size. Even when there are actual recruitment results, the number is typically one or two people each year. Employment rates by industry were relatively high for business consultants/think tanks, energy, and information and communications, but were only 20-40 % for other sectors. Hypothesis testing revealed that: (1) companies that hire a master’s degree in the humanities and social sciences once do not tend to continue to do so; (2) companies that hire Ph.D.s are more likely to hire a master’s degree in the humanities and social sciences as well, but the percentage of such companies does not increase; (3) the relationship between average length of employment related to “trainability” and hiring in a master’s degree in the humanities and social sciences is indeterminate; and (4) the tendency for humanities and social science master’s degree holders to recruit from a variety of graduate schools is denied, and recruitment results are skewed toward former imperial universities and well-known private institutions. These results indicate that the expertise and “trainability” of master’s degrees in humanities and social sciences are not highly valued in the context of “membership-type employment” in Japanese companies. As a result, it is concluded that graduate schooling does not confer an employment advantage and that academic inflation is suppressed.
