Market Overview

The market size of employment support services for persons with disabilities (total of 4 categories: Support for employment transition/Support for stabilization of employment, Support for continuous employment (Type A & B), Recruitment services, and Employment support services at farmland/satellite office) in FY2021 rose by 7.9% on a YoY to have reached 693,100 million yen, based on the sales at businesses. Against the backdrop of increased number of handicapped persons* and statutory employment rate based on the Act to Facilitate the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, demand for various support services has been rising, which led all four categories in the market to expand in FY2021.

When observing the FY2021 market size by category, “Support for employment transition/Support for stabilization of employment” generated 86,200 million yen (up by 4.0% on YoY), “Support for continuous employment (Type A & B)” achieved 594,600 million yen (up by 8.2% on YoY), “Recruitment services” 2,600 million yen (up by 13.0% on YoY), and “Employment support services at farmland/satellite office” 9,700 million yen (up by 24.4% on YoY). While “Support for continuous employment (Type A & B)” occupies the largest share within the entire market, “Employment support services at farmland/satellite office” has achieved the largest growth rate among the four categories and is rapidly expanding the share.

Noteworthy Topics

Supports Need to Be Responsive to Diversification in Forms of Work and in Types of Disabilities

Diversification in working styles such as teleworking and working at home stemming from the COVID-19 crisis, and diversification in types of disabilities affected by increase in persons with mental illness and developmental disorder have brought about changes in the market structure of the concerned services, requiring the services to be responsive to such trends. Currently, enhancement in the services considerate for the characteristics of mental illness and developmental disorder is in progress, and introduction of IT-skills training programs is observed in the Support for employment transition as a part of being responsive to shortage in IT personnel and to telework.

Future Outlook

The market size of employment support services for persons with disabilities in FY2022 is projected to rise by 8.2% on a YoY to attain 750,000 million yen. Demand for employment support services for persons with disabilities is expected to continue expanding, as many companies are not able to respond to statutory employment rate for persons with disabilities scheduled to be raised in stages, and as the number of persons with disabilities is on the rise*.

On the other hand, while achievement of statutory employment rate for handicapped people tends to attract attention, the companies’ side that accepts such people is required to learn the knowledge to expand the employment of persons with disabilities by stabilizing the employment of such persons and to make them dependable workforces. As a support for this, many service providers provide seminars and other enlightenment activities to make the client companies to deepen the knowledge. Some service providers instruct the knowhow that they themselves have accumulated to the clients. Support for client companies to learn and accumulate the knowledge is likely to become more critical than ever before.

*Source of data: The following information publicized by MHLW (in Japanese):
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/wp/hakusyo/kousei/18/backdata/01-01-01-02.html

Research Outline