Japan jobs:

 Article Source:  https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220531/p2g/00m/0bu/028000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's unemployment rate fell to 2.5 percent in April, the third straight month it has declined, as the labor market showed signs of recovery after all coronavirus restrictions were lifted in late March, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage point from the previous month to match the level seen in March 2020, according to the ministry.

The job availability ratio rose for the fourth consecutive month to 1.23, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said separately. The ratio means there were 123 job openings for every 100 job seekers.

Ideas:

The unemployment rate never tells the real story of what might be happening in an economy, as even though the rate is decreasing just what kind of jobs are being filled.

There might indeed be more being added to the economy, but sometimes the numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, meaning are they quality jobs that wokers can live on or they just part-time or contract and temporary jobs being added to the economy.

Instead of saying 123 jobs for every 100 job seekers it can mean 1.23 jobs for every 1 job seeker. So that might be a positive or maybe no depdending again on what kinds of jobs are being offered. Part-time jobs, temporary jobs, contract jobs, that might not have a real future for some workers.

Unfortuntaly, the Japanease economy too, has been reducing the number of good quality jobs the past decade or so, as companies try to find ways to cut costs, as they don't think of workers as stakeholders or a valuable part of the company.

Article:

The number of job offers increased especially in the accommodation and food service sectors as businesses hired staff ahead of the Golden Week holidays through early May, according to the labor ministry.

For the first time in three years, there were no recommended curbs on business activity during the major holiday period as COVID-19 cases declined and the quasi-state of emergency, which asked restaurants and bars to close earlier, was lifted.

The total number of unemployed people in April declined 30,000 from the previous month to 1.8 million, down for the third consecutive month, data from the internal affairs ministry showed.

Ideas:

The accomdation and food service sectors, along with many other small businesses were the biggest hit related to the economy. Hopefully these sectors will begin to get back to some kind of normal or at least a new normal.

But it might a very long time for some to get back to normal, especially those that relided on international tourists such as the accomdation industry. Its hard to replace 31 million international tourists that went to Japan in 2019 with just one good Golden week holiday.

Of the 1.8 million unemployed seems like a lot of unemployed workers, so its seems like Japan still has a long way to go before the economy has some kind of full employment or near full employment.

And it might take some time before Japan reaches what employment level it had in 2019 before the pandemic.

Again there were 31 million international tourists, not counting the Rugby tourists, that went to Japan in 2019. So that was a lot of money being spent which might have meant a lot of jobs in the services sectors areas, as accomadations, travels agencies, food services, travel such as ANA and JAL and so on.

And as Japan has still not opened up to internation tourists there might be some of the 1.8 million that were/are part of those related to the international tourist indusry.

Article:

Among them, 730,000 people voluntarily left their jobs, up 60,000, while 430,000 were laid off, a decrease of 120,000 from the previous month. The number of new job seekers was unchanged from March at 460,000.

The number of workers in the accommodation and food services sector increased by 100,000 from a year earlier to 3.7 million, unadjusted for seasonal factors.

"A rebound was seen in the number of workers in sectors that have been the target of restrictions," said Megumi Wada, a researcher at the Daiwa Institute of Research. "If infection cases are kept low and inbound tourism resumes, further job growth can be expected."

Ideas:

So now we see some breakdowns of the real changes in the job numbers. So 730,000 people voluntarily left there jobs. There could be many reasons why that many people left their jobs. For a better job, family reasons, health reasons, moving reason and or course maybe they just didn't like their current job.

But it a way, its both a positive and a negative. It might be a positive if that many people are changing jobs if they were able to get a new job immediately or thought they could which might mean there were/are a lot of jobs available. 

But 430,000 being laid off is not a good sign as that does seem high which might indicate either the Japanese economy is not doing too good or that also in a market economy there area always going to changes taking places such as some companies are doing better than other companies. 

But a decrease of layoffs by 120,000 can be considered a good sign that the Japanease economy might be improving even if just a little.

Article:

After about two years of strict border controls amid the pandemic, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last Thursday that Japan will start accepting foreign tourists from June 10, though limiting the intake to those on package tours with guides and fixed itineraries.

But Wada added recent surges in fuel and other raw material prices linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine could squeeze profits from a wide range of firms and make them reluctant to hire.

Ideas:

With no disrespect to Prime Minister Kishida, while it might be a good idea to track incoming tourists and so on it doesn't seem to have worked, or doesn't seem to be working.

There have been many reports talking about how Japanease tour companies have been unwilling to participate in the tour package program.

One of the problems is how visas are not handleded compared to before the pandemic. Before you needed to do was show up at Haneda, for example, and show your passport, and they stamp it for 3 months.

But now you have to go through the tour agency or the immigration site which is too time-consuming which means its not tourist friendly or easy to do.

While many or most countries are open to summer travel Japan seems to be the last and only advanced country that seems to be afraid to open.

With the weak yen, Japan at this time, is losing a lot of extra money that international tourists would be spending which would offset the increased raw material prices and other costs.

So Japan is losing a very good opportunity to offset the increaes in energy and raw material costs.

Article:

"It may impact manufacturers, a sector that had broadly recovered, and especially hit small and midsize companies," Wada said.

The latest data showed the total number of people in work increased 270,000 from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 67.4 million.

Ideas:

Higher energy costs and raw material costs are definetly going to have some impact on the profit margins of many companies which could also mean they might not be able to hire as many workers as they want of need.

Small and medium-sized companies are always the hardest hit as they don't have the needed resources to absorb the increased costs and or are reluctant or can't pass on their costs to the next in the supply chain.

For example, if they supply a larger company with some intermediate product that the larger company needs, its quite possible the larger company, with more market power or more market leverage might not want or accept the price increases of what the smaller company needs to maintain its profit margin.

Even if the small company and large company have a contract the large company might try to find suppliers that offer a lower price at the same quality if they can legally do it.

Again it might sound good that there were more people added to the work force, but again what kinds of jobs were added. Were they good livable jobs or were they low level part-time jobs, temporary or contract jobs that people really can't depend on for a normal living.

Have a nice day and be safe!