Japan Jobless Rate:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210528/p2g/00m/0bu/029000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's unemployment rate worsened to 2.8 percent in April, increasing for the first time in six months, as hiring in the service sector softened under the government's third coronavirus state of emergency, government data showed Friday.

The jobless rate climbed from 2.6 percent marked in March, but it was lower than 2.9 percent registered in February, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Separate data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed the job availability ratio in April worsened to 1.09 from 1.10 a month earlier, meaning that there were 109 job openings for every 100 job seekers. It improved 0.01 point in March.

Ideas:

Japan's jobless rate might be the envy of the world and or much less than many countries especially during the pandemic.

But the jobless or unemployment rate doesn't tell the full story. As there might be a large number of employed workers who are working part-time jobs, contract jobs, or even temporary type jobs with low wages and or no real benefits.

And at the same time, it doesn't show how many have stopped or given up looking for work. In many countries a person is not counted as unemployed unless they can show they are looking for work, report to an government unemployment agency with documents showing attempts to find work.

So who really know how many people have given up because they just can't find work.

And it has to be remembered, a country's unemployment or jobless rate will never be zero. There is always a certain number of people, in any economy, for whatever reason, who are out of work. 

Some maybe by choice, some maybe have left a job, quit a job, was laid-off, and now are looking for work. So no economy will have a zero percent jobless late.

Article:

In late April, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a third state of emergency in Tokyo and three western prefectures in response to a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections driven by highly contagious virus variants.

It entailed stricter and broader virus prevention steps than the second emergency, effective from January to March for the capital and other areas, seeking not only alcohol-serving establishments but also major commercial facilities such as department stores to close temporarily, in addition to stay-at-home requests.

The total number of unemployed people increased 200,000 from a year earlier to 2.09 million, while people in work rose 290,000 to 66.57 million.

Ideas:

Again while the total number of unemployed people increased by 200,000 for a  year earlier, it might not tell the full or real story.

And maybe the real story is how many people in the economy are working part-time, temporary, or contract now because of the pandemic, as opposed to full-time jobs with real benefits.

Maybe companies have no choice and they can only offer part-time for awhile. 

If there are supposedly 120 to 125 million people in Japan and only 66.57 million are working, or better how many of 120 million are work eligible, meaning lets say university age plus, who might have a chance for some kind of job.

For whatever reasons, to change the topic a little, the emergency measures don't seem to be working, and maybe its not the government fault.

Article:

By sector, however, accommodation and restaurant services, hit hard by the prolonged pandemic, saw a larger fall in the number of workers than any other, losing 200,000 from the previous year to 3.53 million.

The deterioration in the unemployment rate is likely to reflect whether the emergency declaration was in place in the final week of each month, when the survey is conducted, a government official told reporters.

The second emergency declaration was lifted on March 21 and the third one was effective from April 25.

Ideas:

Yes, the accommodation and restaurant services type businesses have been hit the worst. And especially those hotels that really focused on international tourists in the major metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo and Osaka. 

But of course many of the resorts, such as spas and onsen areas may have been hit hard because of the drop in international tourists.  

The restaurant situation is a little different as they of course rely on domestic customers, and unfortunately are subject to the feelings and fears of customers coming back to their places of business.
Most likely the restaurant industry is not going to get back to normal until everything begins to calm down, with more people vaccinated, with the virus variants under control.

And at the same time, whether good or bad, people/families might have adopted a different lifestyle of eating more from home and or even getting more takeout instead of eating at a restaurant like before the pandemic.

Restaurants, if they are able, if they haven't already, should have transitioned to more takeout services to offset the losses of customers coming to their restaurant.

Article:

Suga had initially planned to lift the latest emergency on May 11, but as the number of daily new infection cases showed no sign of abating during the Golden Week holidays through early May, the declaration was extended to May 31 and expanded to 10 prefectures.

In the reporting month, 35.68 million of those with jobs were regular workers, rising 50,000 from the previous year and up for the 11th consecutive month, while 20.39 million were nonregular employees, growing 200,000 and up for the first time in 14

Ideas:

And here is the real story, the 20.39 million who are nonregular employees. Maybe companies feel they have to choice, in order to survive, they only hire or only want to hire nonregular workers.

There are always positives and negatives. While a company might think they are saving money by only hiring non-regular workers at a lower wage than regular workers, its doesn't really help the economy, in that the nonregular workers have less income and then after maybe whatever expenses they have they have less extra income or less disposable income to use in the economy related to buying products or services.

So then consumer spending is less then what is needed or wanted in the Japanese economy.

The trend seems to be nonregular workers, but it might help the bottom line of companies it doesn't help the real economy in the long run.

Have a nice day and be safe!