Japan Jobs:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20211001/p2g/00m/0bu/027000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's job availability in August worsened for the first time in four months as the government's state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic was expanded due to a resurgence in infection numbers, government data showed Friday.

The job-to-applicant ratio inched down to 1.14 from 1.15 in July, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The ratio means there were 114 job openings for every 100 job seekers.

The ratio rose 0.02 from June to July before this latest decline.

Ideas:

A economy that has 114 jobs for every 100 job seekers on the surface might be appear good for job seekers.

But what kind of jobs are available for job seekers? Are they jobs with good benefits and salaries or are does the jobs list also include contract or temporary jobs.

Unfortunately, sometimes you hear how an economy added such and such number of jobs for a month or quarter, but what kind of jobs were added? Were they full-time jobs with good benefits and reasonable salaries or were they contract/temporary jobs that are becoming more common in Japan these days.

The new Prime Minister Kishida wants to try and focus on eliminating the amount of income inequality. He allegedly puts the blame on Abenomics and it grew the economy but also created a lot of income inequality in the economy.

Article:

Separate data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed the jobless rate in the reporting month stood at 2.8 percent, unchanged from July, when it dropped 0.1 percentage point from June for the second consecutive monthly decline.

Throughout August, the virus emergency was in place in Tokyo and the southern island prefecture of Okinawa, where the measure was imposed in mid-July and late May, respectively.

The step was repeatedly expanded and eventually covered 21 out of Japan's 47 prefectures by the end of August, amid a resurgence of infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

Ideas:

The jobless rate may only be 2.8 percent, which might sound good, and at the same time, no economy will ever have 0 percent for the jobless rate, as there are always those who choose not to work, those who are  looking for a job, and those not counted as part of the jobless as they have given up and not working, maybe such as young mothers with children, those who have retired and don't plan to work again.

Even at a low rate of 2.8 percent, you really don't know how many people, who are unemployed and looking for work. And unfortunately sometimes the figures don't show the real situation in the economy.

For example, sometimes governments might try to make the stats or figures look a little better than what they really are. But there is no evidence that Japan has done this as even 2.8 percent seems questionable when many businesses and sectors are still be affected by the virus situation such as the service industry which includes hotels, retail, tourism related businesses and so on.

But at the same time, Japan is very good at protecting workers and jobs in dire situations. So even though the pandemic has now been about 16/18 months, companies have ways to keep workers working such as moving them around to other companies until the business/company they were/are in gets back to some kind of normal.

Article:

The emergency dampened consumption and dealt a heavy blow to the economy, as people were asked to refrain from making nonessential outings and restaurants and bars were requested to stop serving alcohol and close by 8 p.m.

"The impact of the pandemic on employment conditions has continued to be seen strongly, especially in the service sector," a government official told reporters.

Following a recent drop in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, the virus emergency was completely lifted Friday throughout Japan.

Ideas:

Consumer spending has always been a concern for the Bank of Japan has it doesn't seem to reach its potential and of course especially during the pandemic.

The services sector might begin to come back somewhat but it might take some time before it reaches the pre-pandemic level.

Even though restaurants and bars might begin to see a return to normal or a new normal in the future, the same can't be said for the tourism industry which is part of the services sector.

Domestic tourism will begin to see a return to some kind of new normal but even domestic tourism might take some time to return to it pre-pandemic level.

The real challenge of course is the international tourism sector. It might take a year or more, if even that, depending on Japan immigration actions to even begin to show signs of a return, which of course has affected a lot of jobs and companies in Japan.

Article:

The rate of fully vaccinated people in Japan is approaching 60 percent of the population, catching up with other major economies after the relatively slow rollout and raising hopes for a full-fledged economic recovery.

The total number of unemployed people in August increased 10,000 from the previous month to 1.91 million, up for the first time in three months. Meanwhile, people in work dropped 320,000 to 66.76 million, the first decline in three months.

The seasonally unadjusted figures showed that workers in the accommodation and restaurant service sectors, among the most impacted by the virus-related restrictions, decreased 6.4 percent from a year earlier to 3.66 million, seeing a sharper drop than any other industry.

Ideas:

As more and more people become fully vaccinated it will mean eventually more and more people/customers/consumes will be out and about as they begin to feel good being moving around outside and going to their favorite places like before the pandemic.

So as we see 1.91 people are reportedly jobless, which is a lot. But again how many of these people are looking for work, or maybe just waiting to return to their previous job before the pandemic or have given up looking for work?

And then 320,000 dropped from the previous three months shows maybe the pandemic continues to cause a lot of problems in the Japanese economy.

And as the pandemic continues on more and more job losses in the service sectors as maybe many businesses, who have attempted to hang on and survive finally decided that can't do it any more and are closing their doors or are laying off some workers and only keeping the minimum needed to survive and keep going.

Article:

Medical and welfare worker numbers grew 3.5 percent to 8.91 million, with the official saying demand may have surged as the government promoted its COVID-19 vaccination campaign across Japan.

Naoko Ogata, a senior economist at the Japan Research Institute, said the outcome showed "a steady move generally" toward recovery in the labor market despite the worsened virus situation and the emergency expansion, citing a decline in the number of unemployed people from a year ago.

Ideas:

Its only natural or logical that the medical and welfare areas would seen an increase of jobs while other areas such as services are seeing a continued drop in jobs.

There might be a decline in the number of unemployed which is good, but as the numbers above show there are still 1.91 people without jobs. But a real question might be, how many of the 1.91 are related to the pandemic and how many are just a normal part of regular economic activities meaning in a market economy there are always going to be jobs added and jobs lost in the economy.

Again while manufacturing and similar sectors might be improving, how long is it going to take for all areas in the services sector to return to some kind of normal besides jobs being added to the medical and welfare areas?

Article:

Compared with a year earlier, the number of unemployed people fell 130,000 to 1.93 million for the second straight monthly decline.

"Some fields such as academic research and manufacturing seem to have already started to hire in anticipation of the resumption in economic activity amid the nation's chronic worker shortage that has been basically unchanged, even under the pandemic," Ogata said.

Looking forward, Ogata pointed out the number of people on payrolls will very likely keep rising, but the possibility will remain that virus cases could surge again. "Therefore, the figure is expected to recover at a slow pace, not instantly and rapidly," she said.

Ideas:

Yes those who are unemployed and are looking for jobs will continue to decline and more and more businesses begin to get back to some kind of normal or new normal or "living with the virus".

But at the same time, the Japanese economy might not get back to its pre-pandemic level for a long time.

Even manufacturing and exports which have been strong in recent months are not beginning to see signs of weakness because of the semiconductor ship shortage, challenges with other suppliers and resources, and now a supply chain problem globally which is affecting not only transportation, getting products quickly to its end part of the chain and even global supply chain fees or cost are beginning to affect supply chains globally.

And economy is very complex and all parts of the economy don't grow the same or linearly, or evenly.

So parts might come back quickly and some parts might take up or a year or even more to get back to some kind of normal or even some kind of new normal.

For example how long is it going to take for the international tourism industry to get back to some kind of normal or even a lessened new normal in the future?

Have a nice day and be safe!