New Fiscal Year Rush Disappears — March 2026 Job Postings Down 21.9% Year-on-Year, New Company Formations Also Negative for 3 Consecutive Months

SalesNow Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Representative: Koki Muraoka), which provides the AI corporate data platform "SalesNow," has released the analysis report "SalesNow Data Flash Vol.3" (https://salesnow.jp/insights/data-flash-vol-3/), based on SalesNow's proprietary data of over 14 million companies and organizations, and all newly established company data from the National Tax Agency's corporate number publication site.

This report is a comprehensive analysis of the March job market and new company formation trends, traditionally seeing a "new fiscal year rush" in anticipation of April new hires. In March 2026, both the number of job postings and new company formations recorded a year-on-year decrease.

Finding 1: March 2026 job postings reached 1.885 million, a significant decrease of 21.9% year-on-year.

The number of job postings in March 2026 was 1,885,242, approximately 530,000 fewer than March 2025 (2,414,390), resulting in a 21.9% year-on-year decrease. However, the March 2025 figure was the highest outlier in the 15-month period (January 2025 - March 2026) and may include the effect of data collection timing. The absolute level in March 2026 is about 20% higher than the 14-month monthly average (approx. 1.573 million), remaining high in the mid-to-long term range.

Finding 2: New company formations in Q1 2026 totaled 36,870 companies, a 6.6% decrease year-on-year.

New company formations in Q1 2026 (January-March) totaled 36,870 companies, 2,595 fewer than Q1 2025 (39,465 companies), a 6.6% year-on-year decrease. Monthly figures show year-on-year declines of -12.5% in January 2026, -5.9% in February, and -1.1% in March, marking three consecutive months of decrease. However, the magnitude of the decrease is rapidly shrinking, suggesting that the pace of deceleration may be weakening.

Finding 3: The "seasonal peak" around the fiscal year-end is weakening, with April data serving as a watershed.

As the majority of Japanese companies begin their fiscal year in April, March and April typically see a concentration of peaks in both job postings and new company formations. However, in March 2026, this peak appeared weaker compared to the previous two years. April 2024 saw 14,305 companies, and April 2025 saw 15,305 companies (up 7.0% year-on-year), with April traditionally functioning as a peak month surpassing March. Whether April 2026 can maintain this level will be the dividing line determining if the full year 2026 continues its "streak of breaking past records" or marks the "first year-on-year decline in 5 years."

Research Overview

Item: Content

Data Source: AI corporate data platform "SalesNow" proprietary database

Scope: Job postings: Crawled data from all job boards / New company formations: All newly designated corporations from the National Tax Agency's corporate number publication site (total count)

Analysis Period: Job postings: January 2025 - March 2026 (15 months) / New company formations: January 2024 - March 2026 (27 months)

Analysis Method: Job postings are based on the total number of unique postings across all media (monthly total). New company formations are based on the corporate number designation date as the establishment date (monthly total).

Data Acquisition Date: April 20, 2026

Population: Total number of companies/organizations: Over 14 million / March 2026 job data: 1,885,242 postings / Q1 2026 new company formations: 36,870 companies

Note: Regarding media coverage of job data

The job boards collected by SalesNow have been progressively expanded. Start dates for major media acquisitions: green (from 2011), wantedly (from 2013), Baitoru (from 2016), Rikunabi NEXT (from 2017), doda (from 2022), Mynavi Baito (from 2023), Townwork (from March 2024), Hello Work (from October 2024), indeed (from November 2025). Therefore, the year-on-year comparison for each month in 2026 may include a structural increase due to added media, and it is important to note that this cannot be simply interpreted as an increase or decrease in "job demand."

Verification with External Statistics

The "weakening seasonal peak around the fiscal year-end" indicated by this report aligns with the direction of the following external statistics.

- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "General Employment Situation": Active job openings-to-applicants ratio 1.18 (January 2026, -0.02 pt month-on-month). The overall job market shows a gentle downward trend.

- doda "Job Change Application-to-Offer Ratio Report": Job change application-to-offer ratio 2.57 (January 2026, -0.17 pt year-on-year). Private sector job postings also show a downward trend.

- TDB "National Corporate Bankruptcy Survey 2025 Annual Report": 2025 bankruptcies 10,261 cases (first time exceeding 10,000 in 12 years, labor shortage bankruptcies hit a new record high).

- TSR "2024 National New Company Survey": 2024 new company formations 153,938 companies (record high, +0.3% year-on-year).

Keywords: Japan, economy, job market, new companies, SalesNow, data, analysis, trend, fiscal year, recruitment, corporate formation, Q1, March, April