Japan Aug. Unemployment.

 Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220930/p2g/00m/0bu/016000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's unemployment rate fell to 2.5 percent in August and the availability of jobs continued to improve for the eighth month in a row, helped by a recovery in the services sector as the economic hit from the COVID-19 pandemic receded, government data showed Friday.

The job-to-applicant ratio rose 0.03 point from July to 1.32 in August, meaning there were 132 job openings for every 100 job seekers, according to data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Japan's economy has been recovering from the pandemic, with no antivirus curbs imposed by the government, though the nation struggled to contain a surge in newly confirmed cases in August.

Ideas:

Its good that the unemployment rate continues to go decrease and its good that more jobs in the services sector is improving, but as inflation continues to increase what kind of salaries are new employees getting in the services sector.

As many restaurants and other service type businesses are seeing their material and energy costs increase maybe some might not much room to offer good salaries their new employees.

And or they are really not hiring as many new workers as they want even though the overall unemployment rate is decreasing.

Most governments, except maybe China, have now taken the position to let the economies run as is without any more restrictions despite some new virus situations here or there.

Article:

Despite the decline in the jobless rate from 2.6 percent in July, the first improvement in four months, it remained higher than before the pandemic, with the job availability ratio yet to recover to a level seen before the outbreak.

"The data confirmed a recovery in the labor market is in place," said Megumi Wada, a researcher at the Daiwa Institute of Research.

"Although the number of job offers has been on the rise, the recovery in job seekers has yet to keep up with it. Restaurants and other service sectors struggled to secure labor even before the pandemic so we need to see whether the recovery will continue in those sectors as demand picks up," she said.

Ideas:

The jobless rate is probably going to remain higher than the pre-pandemic level for some time until all sectors are able to get back to the pre-pandemic level.

Most likely part of the challenge is the kinds of work people want these days and maybe they see restaurant type jobs as not as appealing compared to other jobs.

If at all possible services sector and or food service type companies need to offer salaries high enough to entice workers to work at their places. Of course restaurants and other places might not be able to afford a high enough salary at they are constrained due to high energy and material costs.

So restaurants are in a catch 22 situation. They know they need to entice workers with higher salaries but because of material and energy cost increases decreasing their profit margins they are not able to do it.

Article:

The hotel and restaurant industry marked the sharpest increase in job openings, up 51.1 percent from a year earlier, followed by a 28.9 percent jump in offers by entertainment, tourism and other service providers.

The total number of unemployed people dropped by 10,000, or 0.6 percent, from the previous month to 1.75 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, while those on payrolls fell 40,000, or 0.1 percent, to 67.30 million, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

Japan reported 690,000 people who left their jobs voluntarily for reasons such as seeking higher pay and better working conditions, down 8.0 percent from the previous month. Some 430,000 were laid off, unchanged from July.

Ideas:

The idea that 690.000 people left their jobs is not necessarily a bad thing. It could mean people see the job market as more fluid or more flexible and are willing to look for other work and even quite their jobs before they actually get a new job.

There is always going to be movement in the job market as people are always going to be moving around.

Maybe during the pandemic there weren't as many people moving around and as the pandemic as been decreasing maybe more people now feel the time is right to get a new job.

But as inflation continued to increase in the Japanese economy more and more people might decide to wait and try to find a new job later.

There could be many reasons why there were 430,00 laid off as they not have anything to do with the pandemic. It could be sector or market challenges. It could be specific company challenges, and of course inflation challenges.

Article:

The government has been seeking to restore normalcy to socioeconomic activity as much as possible, as vaccinations against COVID-19 progress.

But the surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by its seventh wave also prompted people to take time off.

The number of people temporarily absent from work jumped 100,000 from July to 2.68 million in August, including those who tested positive and close contacts who had to stay home, according to the internal affairs ministry.

Ideas:

Covid is still here and there are some people still getting it and as such many businesses might have challenges with employees here or there. 

The only thing companies can do is adjust the best they can to employees who get the virus. 

The unfortunately even those with three shots seem still get the new strain and many or most are not vaccinated to the new strain or even new strains developing.

This could be the new normal for business in the future as newer and newer strains come out of nowhere and companies just have to learn to adjust the the new environment as is.

And its not fair to some and say its just like the flu because for some even the flu is life-threatening.

Have a nice day and be safe!