Japan Job Availability:

 Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20221028/p2g/00m/0bu/022000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's job availability ratio improved for the ninth consecutive month in September as employers looked to hire in preparation for a rebound in inbound tourism sparked by the removal of the nation's pandemic-related daily arrival cap, government data showed Friday.

The job-to-applicant ratio rose 0.02 point from the previous month to 1.34, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. The ratio means there were 134 job openings for every 100 job seekers.

Separate data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed Friday that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate in the reporting month rose 0.1 point to 2.6 percent from August, the first rise in four months.

Ideas:

While there are/were 134 job openings for every 100 workers, just what kinds of jobs are really out there right now. Are they full-time full benefit jobs or are they just contract jobs with no benefits, which is becoming more common in Japan.

A increase of 0.1 percent in the jobless rate is not really significant but it might indicate people are willing to now change jobs while there the pandemic they remained in their jobs.

And as Japan has opened up again to international tourism, hotels, restaurants, and other places that focus on international tourism are not trying to bring back the staff that either layed-off or voluntarily quit for better more stable jobs.

Article:

The increase in the unemployment rate reflects "people voluntarily leaving work for better working conditions. Another reason could be the abating coronavirus pandemic situation," an official at the internal ministry said at a briefing.

Japan's economy has been recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, with antivirus curbs lifted by the government and the borders reopened to independent foreign tourists.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last month his government would remove the cap on daily arrivals on Oct. 11 as part of its easing of COVID-19 border controls.

Ideas:

During the pandemic probably many people felt the need to just stay in their present jobs, as maybe companies were not hiring and they were just waiting for the pandemic to end before changing jobs. 

In Japan people probably don't change jobs as much as people in the US where job hopping is quite common. But as workers seek out better work/life benefits most likely companies see the trend and are now beginning to offer better work/life benefits and younger workers are not willing or don't want to have the same work life-style as their parents did. 

But just how many companies are willing to meet the needs of younger generation workers especially the more traditional Japanese companies. 

Article:

The number of job offers was up 0.9 percent, led by a solid rise in the accommodation and restaurant sectors. The number of job seekers declined 0.8 percent, according to the labor ministry.

The unemployment rate rose as the total number of unemployed people in September increased by 80,000, or 4.6 percent, from the previous month to 1.83 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, data from the internal ministry showed.

Among the 1.83 million, 730,000 people voluntarily left their jobs, up 5.8 percent from the previous month.

Ideas:

It's good that accomodation and restaurants jobs are beginning to return. But just what does the 0.8 percent decline on the number of job seekers really mean. Does it mean people think there are enough good jobs to apply for ore are more people satisfied with the job they have now. 

But at the time 80,000 more people were unemployed for whatever reason, such as quitting their present jobs to look for new jobs as they might see more jobs are now available that they are interested in.

What is not known exactly is which sector or sectors are losing the most jobs at this point.

An economy is very complex and every sector doesn't grow in linear manner as some see growth and some see periods of less growth. 

Have a nice day and be safe!