CAREER CO., LTD.

Business Details

Operating as a single segment of "Aging Society-Oriented HR Services," the company runs two businesses: the Senior Work Business (call centers, building maintenance, etc.), which creates employment opportunities for active seniors (aged 55 and above), and the Senior Care Business, which supplies qualified personnel such as nurses, care workers, and childcare workers to nursing care and childcare facilities. The company provides staffing dispatch, recruitment placement, contracted operations, and dispatch-to-hire services. The Senior Care Business accounts for approximately 83% of revenue composition, making it the core business.

Recent Overview

In the first half, revenue declined 12.6% and operating loss widened, but ordinary profit and net income turned positive due to a social insurance premium refund

Revenue for the first half of FY2026 (ending March 2026) (October 2025 to March 2026) was ¥6,664 million (down 12.6% year on year). Both businesses saw revenue decline: the Senior Care Business posted ¥5,513 million (down 14.4% year on year) and the Senior Work Business posted ¥1,151 million (down 2.6% year on year). Operating loss worsened to ¥54 million (compared to a loss of ¥37 million in the same period of the prior year); however, due to the recording of ¥81 million in non-operating income related to a refund of overpaid amounts arising from social insurance loss-of-eligibility procedures for registered dispatch staff, ordinary profit turned positive at ¥27 million and interim net income turned positive at ¥17 million. In financing activities, short-term borrowings were reduced by a net ¥300 million, and the equity ratio improved to 44.7%. There has been no revision to the full-year earnings forecast (revenue of ¥16,360 million, operating profit of ¥40 million), with profit contribution from optimization of the earnings structure expected in the second half.

Key Products

Growth Drivers

• Rapid increase in the number of people certified as requiring long-term care and users of nursing care services amid progressing population aging
• Expanding demand for nurse and care worker staffing driven by accelerated task shifting resulting from physicians' work-style reform (effective April 2024)
• Sustained high demand for essential workers and senior personnel amid deepening structural labor shortages at companies
• High level of demand for childcare worker recruitment against the backdrop of resolving waitlisted children issues and improving working environments in the childcare sector
• Productivity improvement and shift toward higher-value-added services through promotion of DX and enhanced AI matching
• Development of handled job categories and proposal of new work styles through strengthened recruitment and training of senior utilization consultants

Risks

• Pressure on profitability from a sharp rise in costs of acquiring dispatch staff (due to inflation and a tight recruitment market)
• Compound cost increases associated with the revised long-term care remuneration schedule (reduction in basic remuneration for home-visit care providers)
• Revenue decline due to the scaling-down of large spot projects (government and public sector) in call center staffing
• Risk of shrinking demand due to efficiency gains in call center operator work resulting from the introduction of generative AI
• Risk of rising labor cost due to regulatory changes such as expanded social insurance coverage and sharp increases in minimum wage
• Risk of changes in labor market supply and demand, such as a decline in the effective job openings-to-applicants ratio (1.18 in March 2026, versus 1.26 in the same month of the prior year)