Who’s getting the biggest pay rises in Japanese companies in Europe?

If you’re in Hungary, Poland or Romania and you’re working in construction or engineering or in IT for a Japanese company, you’re in luck.

According to a survey by JETRO of Japanese companies in Europe, of the 857 organisations who responded, employees in Romania, Hungary and Poland are seeing pay rises of well over 7.5% to 8.5%, whereas employees  in Western European countries such as Italy, Finland and Sweden are getting less than 3%. Those countries with the largest numbers of Japanese companies – Germany, UK, France – are seeing pay rises ranging between 3.5 to 4.5%.

The top three sectors with the highest pay rises were:

  • 2022/23: Construction/Plant/Engineering (6.25%), Communication/IT/Software/Information system/Digital services (5.95%), Rubber products (5.87%)
  • 2023/24: Other manufacturing industries (7.50%), Non-banking financial institutions (7.17%), Non-ferrous metals (6.00%)

These seem to be indicators of where demand is the strongest and therefore competition for employees. We’ve heard quite a few cases of Japanese companies expanding in Romania recently, not only in manufacturing but also IT services and logistics. Hungary has been a hotspot for a while now, particularly in automotive manufacturing.

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