Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to deploy about 900 university-educated first-year employees who entered the company this spring to its factories for about three months beginning in January, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday.

These employees, including those in white-collar and engineering positions, are scheduled to help assemble cars and perform other factory jobs. Although university graduates usually are sent to factories as a part of training, it is extremely rare for them to join assembly lines in full operation.

Toyota's production sites are facing a labour shortage because its hybrid cars such as the Prius are in great demand. However, it is difficult to employ new workers due to cost-reduction efforts and because future demand for such cars is uncertain. To cope with the situation, the company decided to utilise its first-year employees to help alleviate the labour shortage for the time being.

These new employees were assigned this month to the company's headquarters, branches and research institutions after completing training at factories and distribution outlets.

Their new workplaces likely will be plants producing Toyota's major car models, including the Tsutsumi factory in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, which has been producing the Prius.

The number of cars Toyota produced domestically dropped to 140,000 a month in February, when the company was forced to make its largest-ever production cuts.

However, Toyota sales have been improving thanks to the government's introduction of tax breaks and a subsidy system to encourage consumers to change to more environmentally friendly cars. The trend is expected to continue before the subsidy system expires at the end of March. To cope with Toyota's plans to produce about 300,000 cars monthly between January and March, the company has been forced to secure more production staff.

Toward this end, Toyota is using support personnel dispatched from its business partners, including car parts makers, since June and began employing temporary workers in October for the first time in 16 months.

However, Toyota likely will be cautious about employing a large number of additional temporary workers, as the company was criticized for its decision to not renew temporary worker contracts.

Toyota is believed to have decided to utilise its first-year employees because demand for cars might decline after the government's support measures end.

-The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network