Laid off (contract not renewed) – Is finding work through Hello Work worth it?

Hello experienced workers in Japan! I was just notified today that my company will not be renewing my アルバイト contract next month. Woo hoo! I was working for them for 3-4 days a week for over a year, so have been counting on them for income for a while now. So now my questions are…

1. My next step is to go to Hello Work and apply for unemployment benefits while i look for my next job right? I have been paying into 雇用保険 for over a year so I imagine I might qualify for benefits, right? (I freelance a bit on the side so not sure if this will disqualify me or not…but only a couple hours a week so maybe I’m still eligible?)

2. Is it worth trying to find employment thru Hello Work? I heard the jobs you can find thru them are often kinda terrible…has anyone had luck finding something decent with them?

3. Does Hello Work offer “career counseling” in the sense of helping you find a new career path, potentially finding a field to reskill for, and if so has anyone found it helpful?

I’m honestly a little lost as to what field I should even be searching in, since I was doing translation work and I don’t feel like it’s a field with all that much future left, especially since I’m still kind of a beginner and doubt I can compete with the seasoned pros…going back into English teaching is my fallback plan but I don’t want to get stuck in that forever after getting out of it 😂

If you can share any experiences or knowledge I’d appreciate it!!

1 comment
  1. I visited Hello Work two or three years ago in search of a new employer, and if you’re college educated and looking to make anywhere near the national average income of about 4.5M yen, you’ll be disappointed. They jobs they offer pay the bare minimum, so you really want to be looking there for some kind of temporary stop-gap job to keep food on the table, not anything that would be a next career step.

    Seeing all those low-paid jobs might be a little dispiriting, but the people working there are pretty helpful, and your taxes are paying for it, so go ahead and make use of it. Get your unemployment benefits started and give yourself some breathing room so that you don’t have to take on a job you hate.

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