Japan Job Availability:

 Article Source:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20221129/p2g/00m/0bu/028000c

Ideas:

Japan’s job availability of course was going to improve and Japan has moved out of the pandemic period for the most part.

The service sector obviously saw the biggest increase as the hospitality industry saw customers return to restaurants, hotels, and airlines for the first time in two years.

The job availability ratio of 135 openings to every 100 jobs seems very good. But we need to be careful as to what kinds of jobs are being offered. Are they full benefit type jobs or are they just contract type jobs, which unfortunately is where Japan might be headed or has been heading toward.

As the government resume is domestic travel program and has allowed international travel to begin again, it means the services and hospitality industry can finally begin to get back to some kind of normalcy and begin to add more jobs.

There was a 29.3 percent increase in the accommodation and restaurant sector which was not surprise as that industry lost a lot of jobs during the pandemic period.

The wholesale and retail sector also saw an 11.7 percent increase in jobs which means maybe customers are back spending again.

At the same time the number of job seekers declined 0.8 percent, which sometimes like much but still a significant number.

There are two ways to look at the decline in jobs seekers here. One being that maybe they are satisfied with their jobs and they feel they don’t need to look at other job offers, The other idea is maybe the jobs being offered just aren’t they are looking for at this time.

Another way to look at at is the workforce of today in Japan is not the same workforce of twenty years ago and new workers are looking for something different than what their parents had.

For sure the labor market has not reached the pre-pandemic level and may not for a year or so and the Japanese economy continues to recover the pandemic along with high inflation.

As the article states there are labor shortages in the hotel and food services industry in Japan. And yes, employers, as the article states, will need to offer more attractive wages, better working conditions, and better benefits to attract the best workers possible.

Again, workers today are not the same a twenty years ago, and if the stats are correct they can pick and choose just what job they want as there are 135 jobs for every 100 jobs seekers.

The unemployment rate in Japan stood at 2.6 percent, which is very good related to advanced countries.

There were 650,00 who voluntarily left there jobs which might mean they had better jobs offers and were willing to change jobs, which 410,000 left involuntarily which might mean some workers in Japan might still be losing jobs and the Japanese economy hasn’t fully recovered just yet.

For men in Japan the unemployment rate was 2.8 percent which again, related to advanced countries is sill very good. For women the rate was 2.3 percent which mean women found jobs more easily than mean.

But it should be remembered that many women in Japan work part-time and or not the higher level executive type jobs that mean traditionally hold.

And yes, as the article states, the Japanese manufacturing industry could face challenges because of the possible recession globally in 2023 as Japan relies heavily on exports.

And yes, as the article states, full recovery of labor demand in all sectors is still to come.

Have a nice day and be safe!