–Unemployment at 2.5% in August, 2.6% from May to July Vs. April’s 2-Year Low 2.5%
–More People Quit to Seek Other Openings Vs. August, Last September
–Employment Growth Up Sharply Y/Y After Posting 1st Drop in 4 months in July
–Number of Unemployed Marks 15th Straight Y/Y Drop; Still Above January 2020 Level
By Max Sato
(MaceNews) – Japanese payrolls posted the second straight year-on-year growth in September after marking the first drop in four months in July while the unemployment rate ticked up to 2.6% as the reopening of the economy prompted more people to quit and look for other openings, data released Friday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.
The seventh wave of the pandemic in Japan has eased after the number of new Covid cases surged to record highs from late July to late August in the absence of strict public health rules.
The seasonally adjusted average unemployment rate stood at 2.6% in September, largely in line with economist forecasts ranging from 2.5% to 2.6%, after edging down to 2.5% in August from 2.6% seen in the previous three months and improving from 2.8% at the start of the year. August’s rate matched 2.5% in April, which was the lowest since 2.4% in February 2020. The jobless rate moved in a tight range of 2.7% to 3.0% last year.
The latest figure is below the recent high of 3.1% hit in October 2020 but still above 2.2% recorded in December 2019, just before the pandemic triggered a global slump.
The number of employed stood at a seasonally adjusted 67.43 million September, up 130,000 (0.2%) from August, when it fell 40,000 (down 0.1%) on the month. The number of unemployed rose by 80,000 (4.6%) to an adjusted 1.83 million after falling 10,000 (down 0.6%) the previous month.
The number of people who left for other openings rose 40,000 (5.8%) in September after falling 60,000 (down 8.0%) in August while the number of those who lost their jobs or retired was unchanged again after being flat the previous month. The number of people who began looking for work was also unchanged after rising 50,000 (11.1%) previously.
Compared to a year earlier, the number of employed rose a sharp 400,000 to an unadjusted 67.66 million in September after rising 120,000 in August. It fell a slight 20,000 in July following gains of 210,000 in June, 170,000 in May and 240,000 in April, which was the first rise in seven months.
The number of unemployed fell a relatively small 70,000 on the year to an unadjusted 1.87 million in September, marking the 15th straight month of decline after a decrease of 170,000 the previous month. 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 government sees employment conditions as “picking up.”
The employment increase in September from a year earlier was led by hotels, restaurants and bars, a category which posted the third straight year-over-year gain. People dined out and traveled more freely without strict public health rules in the summer and the trend has continued in the fall.
Information and telecommunications service providers and the medical and welfare category also continued hiring more workers, with the year-on-year pace of increase accelerating from August.
By contrast, employment among the wholesale and retail industry as well as construction firms continued falling. Manufacturers, which had been shedding jobs for months, hired more in September, compared to a year earlier.