Japan's July jobless rate rises to 2.7% as more women seek employment
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's jobless rate rose to 2.7 percent in July from 2.5 percent a month earlier, deteriorating for the first time in four months, as more women sought employment amid higher living costs, government data showed Tuesday.
The job availability ratio inched down 0.01 point from June to 1.29, falling for the third straight month, as more people looked for employment while job offers remained at roughly the same level, according to separate data.
Ideas:
An increase to 2.7 from 2.5 is not that much, and yes, more people/women are probably looking for work as inflation continues in Japan, with higher prices.
The jobs availability ratio at 1.29 meaning there were 129 jobs for every job seeker, but what kinds of jobs are being offered. Are they full-time full benefit with livable salaries or are they contract jobs with little benefits and lower than normal salaries.
It's important, for any advanced economy, that jobs can be offered year-round instead of just once a year for recent college graduates. Workers in their 30's 40's and 50's should be able to look for and find work anytime of the year.
A flexible economy should be open for work anytime of the year if workers want and need to change jobs. Japan and South Korea in recent years have become more flexible with regard to offering work chances on a year-round strategy instead of just targeting recent college graduates.
Article:
The ratio indicates there were 129 job openings for every 100 job seekers.
The number of people with jobs fell 0.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted 67.45 million, while the number of unemployed people increased 6.4 percent to 1.84 million, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Ideas:
There are some jobs that are affected by seasons or the time of year, and as a result, sometimes there are more jobs and sometimes there are less jobs.
There are supposedly 125 million people in Japan, but only 75.45 million were employed. Of course take into account the number of children not working and the number older people who have retired and not working.
The increase in unemployment could be from many variables such as companies going out of business to people quitting their jobs and looking for work and so on.
In a market economy, there is always going to be a those unemployed for many reasons. But just because a person is unemployed might not even be their fault as maybe the company they were working for just went out of business, and some are actually looking for work.
Article:
The number of unemployed woman climbed 150,000 to 810,000, while that of men dropped 20,000 to 1.04 million.
The number of women not in the labor force, comprising those aged 15 and above who are not seeking employment such as housewives, fell 170,000 to 25.69 million from June, indicating more women were looking for jobs.
Ideas:
In a market economy, its good if everyone can the best possible job they want but its not always possible, so people have to settle for what they can get and do the best they can with the job.
But at the same time, in Japan, there is a large variance between pay for women and pay for men. but its the same in the US.
As inflation continues to affect households in Japan, women might be looking to get any good job they can but at the same time, not settle for just a minimum wage job at a conbini or something like that.
Women today want good paying jobs if they can get them and they don't want to settle for jobs that don't pay what they need or want.
Article:
A ministry official attributed the increase in women seeking employment to recent inflation, the lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions that has encouraged people to go out and the anticipation of higher minimum hourly wages.
The ministry will monitor whether such women successfully land jobs and contribute to a decline in the unemployment rate, the official said.
Ideas:
Japan has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, but at the same time, again, women are usually paid less than men and women occupy more service sector jobs, which usually pay lower salaries.
What the problem with wages is/are most service type companies again don't pay good wages or even good minimum wage rates, as their profit margins have shrunk to do inflation.
And unfortunately, those at the bottom of the pay-scale such as minimum wage service sector jobs might not even see how much an increase, if any, due to decreased profit margins.
Many big companies gave on average 3.5 percent wage increases but how much service type companies and wage increases, which employ more women than men.
Article:
By sector, the number of workers in construction rose 3.5 percent to 4.74 million, while employees in wholesale and retail services increased 1.5 percent to 10.63 million on an unadjusted basis.
According to separate data from the labor ministry, the number of job seekers grew 0.9 percent in July from the month before, while the number of job openings remained flat.
Ideas:
These days, many young people, both college graduates and non-college graduates then to stay away from jobs that require a lot of manual labor such as construction type jobs.
Actually today, Japanese young people stay away for jobs at convenience stores as maybe they think the work it too hard, the hours are too long, or the part-time pay is not enough.
Whenever I travel to Japan and to convenience stores such as Lawson, Mini-stop, 7/11 and so on I only see foreign students working there and not Japanese students.
Wholesales and retail service sector jobs might attract more women to those kinds of jobs as maybe they offer more flexibility if they are a mother with small children.
Article:
A labor ministry official said more people were looking for jobs after company bankruptcies and to cope with surging prices.
The information and communications sector saw the biggest increase in employment offers, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier, followed by 2.1 percent in the accommodation and restaurant sector.
In contrast, job offers fell in the manufacturing sector and construction by 11.4 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively.
Ideas:
In a market economy, especially a market economy with not good economic conditions, might have a higher than normal bankruptcies.
Most likely, the continued high inflation might have affected some companies profit margins to the point they had to file for bankruptcy.
Just what kinds of jobs are available in the information and communications sector and what kinds of workers to they attract. It seems college graduates with hi-tech related degrees can easily get a jobs in this sector.
The accommodation and restaurant sector is another sector which might attract a lot of women as their jobs might be more flexible for working women with children.
Most likely the manufacturing sector saw a decrease in jobs because the sector might be dependent on export manufacturing and the global trade/export market has not been that good recently.
Construction also might be dependent on material costs and as their profit margins have significantly decreased, due to the increase in raw materials they have/had no room in their profit margins to higher new workers.
At the same time, as many young workers tend to shun working in the construction industry, companies, at this time, might not be offering any new jobs.
Have a nice day and be safe
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