the change is because some candidates complain that JLPT 2 &
3 are too far apart and cause a high failure rate for level 2
i think from N5~N2, it's roughly equivalent to JLPT 4~2....but
N1 will have a larger syllabus than JLPT 1 
....so up to u to decide if it's more difficult or
not
if u are gonna work in japan....guess usually people study a
temporary japanese course and probably take N1 there directly