I was stupid once and actually went to Hello Work to see if they had any jobs for a dude on a student visa. Spent 30 minutes finding nothing worth a crap on their ciomputer system, and this was long before the current economic slump.
They then set me up for 1-on-1 counseling with a clerk who tried to set me up with either:
A; a job paying 800/hr for 2-3 hours a day basically babysitting kids at a kids English school (the job is obviously supposed to be for the Japanese part time staff, not the white guy who actually speaks English and when asking for any jobs at eikaiwas, assumes the retarded civil servant at Hello Work would look for, like, TEACHING jobs)
B; a job paying 1000 an hour making sandwiches from midnight to 4AM (perfect for someone who has classes at 9AM)
They didn't have any of the huge numbers of jobs listed in the baito.com type websites that paid better and had better hours. What the hell is the point of the place? except to prove the private sector employment agencies do a better job than the government...what a shock.
A waste of 2 hours of my life that I can look back on with a laugh.
Though I suppose the system is perfect if you're getting unemployment payouts and need to pretend to look for jobs but don't want to actually land one, since it would prevent you from getting your full share of payouts. Fine with me, it's the only way a gaijin can get his tax money back.