70% Of Care Service Providers Grapple With Labor Shortage

Nearly 70 percent of care service providers in Japan are facing labor shortages, according to a survey conducted last year by an industry foundation.

The shortage is most pronounced for home visit caregivers, with 83.5% of geriatric and other caregiving facilities responding that they lack staff to provide the service.

This issue is often seen as less appealing due to its low wages and heavy workload, as reported by Mainichi Japan.

The shortage is most pronounced for home visit caregivers, with 83.5% of geriatric and other caregiving facilities responding that they lack staff to provide the service, according to a survey conducted last October by the Care Work Foundation.

The survey, which covered 19,890 employees and 8,708 caregiving facilities nationwide, showed that 66.3% of nursing facilities were experiencing labor shortages. This fuels concerns that an increasing number of people in graying Japan will not receive the care they require.

The survey also showed that 69.1% of facilities had staff aged 65 years or older, with over a quarter of home visit caregivers in that age bracket.

The average annual salary for caregivers with at least two years of experience stood at 3.76 million yen ($26,000) in 2021. By service offered, 69.3 percent of facilities said they lack on-site caregiving staff, while 47.2 percent said they face a shortage of nursing staff.

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