Japan's Unemployment Rate:

 Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220304/p2g/00m/0bu/018000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's unemployment rate deteriorated slightly to 2.8 percent in January as a resurgence of coronavirus cases cast a pall over the labor market, government data showed Friday.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose 0.1 percentage point from the previous month as a COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency was declared in some prefectures in the reporting month due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Separate government data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed the job availability ratio in January improved to 1.20 from a revised 1.17 in December.

Ideas:

Japan still has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, even at 2.8 percent. 

The unemployment rate will never be exactly at 0 percent, as there are always those who left their jobs and are looking for work. Those who are unemployed because of structural changes in the economy and may be temporary period for them.

And then there are those who are not included in the work force, because they haven't been looking for work for a long time, and then there is the aged who might not want to work anymore.

But just because there was a 0.1 percentage point increase should not be a cause for alarm and people/workers are always changing jobs, always being layed off and looking for work and so on. 

The unemployment rate is a very fluid rate meaning its never static its always changing.

Article:

The ratio means there were 120 job openings for every 100 job seekers. It was the highest ratio since 1.31 in April 2020, when the Japanese government declared a coronavirus state of emergency for the first time.

The total number of unemployed people in January increased 40,000, or 2.1 percent, from the previous month to 1.9 million, rising after a drop of 50,000 in December, the internal affairs ministry data showed.

Among them, 710,000 people voluntarily left their jobs, up 10,000, while 590,000 were laid off, an increase of 60,000 from the previous month. The number of new job seekers was unchanged from December at 490,000.

Ideas:

At 120 job openings for 100 job seekers might seem like a lot of jobs to choose from. But what kinds of jobs are being offered and just what are jobs seekers looking for these days.

The pandemic and telework has changed the thinking of some or many workers as how they want to work. Of course it doesn't mean they are going to find what they want but the mindset of workers has changed a lot over the past two or three years.

What might not be encouraging is the 590,000 who were supposedly laid off. Just why were they laid off? Was it because of the continued pandemic? Are they related to the services sector? Are they related to the tourism sector? Are they from businesses that tried to hold on over the last two years because of the pandemic but finally had no choice but had to lay off workers?

And or how much of it is just regular economic market activity meaning at any time, there are businesses that open and business that close and or businesses that are doing very good and businesses that are not doing very good and have to lay off workers.

And of the 490,000 who are new job seekers, who long will it take for them to find a new job? One week, one month, several months, one year and so on?

Article:

In the reporting month, over 30 of Japan's 47 prefectures were covered by the quasi-state of emergency, which called for people to refrain from nonessential outings and restaurants to close earlier.

The resurgence of infections sent the number of people temporarily absent from work to 2.5 million, unadjusted for seasonal factors. The figure hit the highest level since August 2021, when the country was facing a fifth wave of infections.

"The impact of the coronavirus was especially seen in the lodging and eatery services sector," a ministry official said. In the sector, 220,000 workers were absent in January, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the 590,000 people who were newly furloughed in the month.

Ideas:

Those 2.5 million were were absent from work doesn't really say much. If it was infection related then how long were they out of work? One day, a few days, or one week etc. Of course they might not have been out all at the same time, as the omicron virus seemed to be much weaker than the delta virus last August.

Of course any loss of time at work might not be very good but with a population of 125 million that is less than 0.02 percent of the total population. Not to say its OK, but some might say what percent of the population is hit with the flu during the winter months or even a bad cold during the winter months.

So 220,000 workers in the lodging and services sector in January, which might indicate either they were laid off, temporarily given required time off because of the continued virus situation.

This might indicate that maybe many of these workers were used or brough back during the Xmas and New Year holiday period but when those periods ended and the new omicron virus situation hit, there was not enough business to keep them working.

Article:

"The lingering coronavirus impact has put a damper on the economy and the labor market has been dragged down too," said Takuya Hoshino, a senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine that started last week and a slowing decline of coronavirus cases in Japan, "Downward risks to the economy have increased and we must consider a scenario in which employment will be affected," he added.

The latest data showed the total number of people in work declined 190,000, or 0.3 percent, from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 66.9 million.

Ideas:

The virus situation and its effects on the Japanease economy most likely are not going to go away any time soon. 

While cases might begin to slow down, its going to take some time for many businesses and many consumers to feel good about everything for a while.

At the same time there is the continued increase in everyday prices at supermarkets, at restaurants, and the gasoline stations that is going to slow down the growth of the Japanease econonomy.

And of course the increase energy costs in all sectors in the economy and the continue increase in raw material prices and other prices that are going to put a drag on business which means they might have to pass even more of their increased costs to the final consumer.

And the Ukraine situation is going to cause even more increases in many different products related to grains, bread, snacks, mandu and so on.

And now as the Japanease yen continues to weaken it means import prices are going to increase even more in the future.

Have a nice day and be safe!