By APD writer Alice
Japan’s unemployment rate climbed for the first time in September from 30-year lows, according to figures from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 2.4%, compared with economists’ median forecast of 2.3%. Meanwhile, the rate stood at 2.2% in July and August, the lowest since 1992.
The jobs-to-applicants ratio fell to 1.57 in September, from the median forecast of 1.59. The ratio stayed at an over 40-year high of 1.63 from late last year through to early this year.
The number of job seekers in September increased by 90,000 from the previous month to 420,000.
Japan’s aging and declining population has led to a tight labor market. But wage increases remain weak and companies are wary of passing on more of their profits to employees due to uncertainty over the economic outlook.
According to Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) Haruhiko Kuroda, wages are not rising much despite a tightening labour market.
“The employment environment remains favorable as domestic demand is solid and there is also a labour shortage,” said Yusuke Shimoda, senior economist at Japan Research Institute.
To ease the labour shortage caused by aging population, the world’s third largest economy plans to attract 500,000 foreign workers by 2025, including those from Asian nations such as Vietnam, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
There were 1,460,463 foreign workers in Japan as of the end of October 2018, a 14.2% increase from the previous year. This is the highest figure recorded by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare since 2007 when it became obligatory for employers to report the number of their foreign employees.
Chinese and Vietnamese workers account for almost half the total number of foreign workers in Japan.
Chinese nationals took the lead with 389,117, accounting for 26.6% of the total. Vietnamese came second, with 316,840, up 76,581 from the previous year. Of the Vietnamese workers, 45.1% were technical interns.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)