Social Network and Job Change in Japanese Youth Labor Market: Embeddedness, Safety Net, and Social Closure

The purpose of this study is to examine whether and how social network affects job change behavior and the result of job change in Japanese young workers. They are faced with high risks of job turnover because of the expansion of fixed-term or part time employment, which is followed by service industrialization and long term recession since 1990’s. It is becoming an important process of career mobility that Japanese young workers find their job in the external labor market today. Social network approach is a convincing sociological framework to investigate the job search process.

     There are several explanations based on social network approach. Embeddedness, safety net, and social closure arguments are examined empirically in this study. A panel survey data targeting at Japanese youth is utilized and it is tested whether and how social network affects job change and change in income after changing a job. Heckman’s two-stage sample selection model is applied.

     Empirical analyses support the embeddedness argument. We have two main findings. First, social network is not related with job change behavior, but employment status is the definitive factor. Secondly, however, male job changers with ‘weak ties’ get higher income if they experience mobility between different industrial sectors. Social network works especially in cross-border mobility, where workers may lose their human capital and be put under uncertainty about their career. Social network can offset these disadvantages and give them advantages in job searching. And the cross-border mobility is a process of de-embeddedness.

     In previous researches in East Asia, social network’s aspects of safety net and social closure are focused. From the results of this study, however, embeddedness argument is still important to be considered.