–Job Cuts, Retirements Dip, Fewer People Begin Looking for Work but Number of Those Who Quit for Other Openings Rise Further
–Employment Up Y/Y for 13th Straight Month, Led by Hotels, Restaurants, Medicals Services, Construction; Manufacturing Jobs Slip
–Number of Unemployed Posts 2nd Straight Y/Y Rise
By Max Sato
(MaceNews) – Japanese payrolls posted their 13th straight growth on year in August as hotels, restaurants, hospitals and construction firms continued to fill job vacancies while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.7% after rising unexpectedly to the level in July from 2.5% in June as a fall in job cuts offset a rise in quits for better positions, data released Friday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.
The government’s domestic travel discount program for residents and widely eased public health rules have been supporting the tourism industry and some retail stores.
In July, more women joined the labor market to look for openings, hoping to support household incomes amid rising costs for daily necessities and improving wages. Some of them appeared to have found work, pushing down the unemployment rate among women in August while the male jobless rate rose.
The unexpected uptick in the March jobless rate to 2.8% from February’s 2.6% was caused mainly by an increase in the number of people leaving to look for better positions. Some of those people found work in April, when the rate slipped back to 2.6%.
The seasonally adjusted average unemployment rate stood at 2.7 in August, unchanged from 2.7% in July but above 2.5% in June, when it improved from 2.6% in May. It came in slightly higher than the median economist forecast of 2.6%. The latest figure is below 2.8% seen in March but is still above the three-year low of 2.4% hit in January. The jobless rate moved in tight ranges of 2.7% to 3.0% in 2021 and 2.5% to 2.8% in 2022.
The latest figure remains below the recent high of 3.1% reached in October 2020 but is above 2.2% recorded in December 2019, just before the pandemic triggered a global economic slump.
In its monthly economic report for September released on Tuesday, the government maintained its overall assessment, saying the economy is recovering moderately thanks to wage hikes, but noted that high costs for daily necessities are eroding purchasing power of households, particularly among lower income families. It also maintained its view on employment conditions after upgrading it for the first time in 11 months in June, saying they are “showing signs of improvement.”
Compared to a year earlier, the number of employed rose 220,000 to an unadjusted 67.73 million in August for the 13th straight increase after rising 170,000 in July, 260,000 in June, 150,000 in May, 140,000 in April, 150,000 in March and 90,000 in February and surging 430,000 in January.
The number of unemployed rose 90,000 on the year to an unadjusted 1.86 million in August after rising 70,000 for the first rise in three months in July, falling 70,000 in June and 30,000 in May, rising 20,000 in April, and marking its first year-over-year rise in 21 months in March with a 130,000 jump. It has drifted down from a pandemic peak of 2.17 million in October 2020 but is still above 1.60 million at the beginning of 2020.
The overall employment increase in August from a year earlier was led by a continued sharp rise in the hotels, restaurants and bars category, which has benefited from government subsidies for domestic traveling, pent-up domestic demand and a fast-recovering inflow of foreign visitors. The increase in the medical and welfare category slowed after rebounding in June and falling in the previous four months.
Employment growth also decelerated in the construction industry while manufacturing jobs decreased after recent solid gains.
Employment in the wholesale and retail industry continued accelerating but sharp drops were seen in the financial and transportation industries as well as in the real-estate and goods leasing category.
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Contact this reporter: max@macenews.com
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