Your First Three Years in a Hotel: What the Numbers Say About Leaving

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare tracks what happens to new graduates after they start work. In its latest report, published on 24 October 2025 and covering people who graduated in March 2022, 33.8% of university graduates and 37.9% of high school graduates had left their first employer within three years.

In accommodation and food service the figures were 55.4% for university graduates and 64.7% for high school graduates. That was the highest of any industry for both groups. The next highest industry for university graduates was living-related services and entertainment, at 54.7%.

If you are about to start your first hotel job, or you are a parent whose child is, those numbers deserve a straight reading. We'd rather give you one.

What the figure does and doesn't say

It says that in this industry, more than half of recent university graduates had left their first employer within three years.

It doesn't say they left for the same reason, or that they regretted it. It counts leaving, not where people went next. We don't know how many moved to another hotel, how many left the industry, and how many were glad.

It includes restaurants and other food service, as the industry category does.

And it is an average across every employer. Some hotels will lose far fewer people than that, and some far more. The average tells you the industry's risk. It tells you nothing about the hotel you are looking at.

Other numbers sitting next to it

We can't tell you why people leave. The ministry's figures don't say. But a few other official numbers, from different surveys, sit alongside the turnover figure.

Pay at the start is lower. In the 2025 wage survey, regular-type workers aged 20 to 24 in accommodation and food service averaged ¥224,600 a month, against ¥242,800 across all industries (What Hotel Work Pays has the table).

The scheduled week is longest. In the 2025 working-conditions survey the industry's scheduled week was 40 hours 2 minutes, against 39 hours 24 minutes on average.

Paid leave is used least. Workers in this industry took 8.0 of the 15.9 days of paid leave they were granted, a take-up rate of 50.7%. Across all industries it was 66.9%.

Those numbers don't prove why anyone leaves. They are what you would want to know if you were asking.

What this doesn't mean for you

It doesn't mean half of you will quit. It means the first three years are the risky stretch, and it is worth going in with your eyes open.

What you can influence

Choose the employer, not just the industry. The questions we suggest in How to Read a Hotel Job Listing and The Hotel Interview are written for exactly this: shift pattern, rest between shifts, training, how long people stay, how abusive guests are handled.

Ask who trains you. A named person with time to do it is a very good sign. "You'll pick it up" is not.

Pick a department with your eyes open. Front desk, restaurant, housekeeping and banquets have different rhythms. Try to learn what the hours really are in the one you are offered.

Prepare before day one. KankoHR Academy has beginner courses, such as Guest Service Excellence and Front Office & Reception Operations. Each ends with a self-check that earns a badge. The badge is self-assessed and not an accredited qualification. It is a reason to arrive knowing the words.

Set checkpoints. This is our suggestion, not a standard. Look at how things stand at three months, six months and twelve months. Ask yourself the same questions each time: am I learning, am I being trained, can I keep up with the hours, and does anyone notice when I do well.

Give it a full year if you can, including one busy season. Again, that's our view. It's hard to judge a hotel in the first quiet month.

If it isn't right

Leaving after a year or two with real skills is not a failure, and the statistics say that leaving within three years is common. Hotel skills (handling a queue and a complaint at once, working to a closing routine, writing a polite email) carry into many other jobs. The thing worth avoiding is staying in a job that is making you ill because you think leaving would be a disgrace.

For parents

Ask the questions in this article and the two linked ones. A hotel that answers them clearly is worth more than one with a famous name.

Next

If you are looking for a first hotel job, set a job alert for the department and area you want, and read each listing with these questions in mind. If you have already started and it is hard, you aren't unusual. Ask someone for help at work before you decide anything.

Sources: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, report on separations of new graduates (published 24 October 2025); 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure; 2025 General Survey on Working Conditions.