Japan Jobless Rate: Updated Aug. 1, 2025.

Japan's July jobless rate falls to 5-year low at 2.3%

Article source:    https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250829/p2g/00m/0bu/016000c

Ideas 

As some Japanese companies begin to increase wages more would-be workers are going back to work, re-entering the workforce, and many even changing jobs

For a long time many workers in Japan didn't change jobs as they just stayed with the same job as changing jobs was either shunned or not easy to do in Japan for a very long time.

But times have changed in Japan and the workforce in Japan is no longer worried about what people think and if they have a chance or need to they try to change jobs like another other place now.

Japan has always had one of the lowest unemployment rates among advanced economies as there were always plenty of jobs for those who needed to work or wanted to work.

But ever since 2008, and the global financial crisis, more jobs related to contract work, part-time work, and less than full-time salary type jobs have been offered with less and less of the type of jobs needed to grow the Japanese economy.

The Japanese economy has become an economy of have's and have nots with good full-time jobs at major Japanese companies at about 30 percent of the workforce and then the have nots about 70 percent of the work force being employed by small and midsize companies along with those with contract work or part-time work.

If 680,000 people left their current job to find a new job it might be an indication finding a new job in Japan is now not as hard as it used to be.

But then again, the opposite might be true as finding a job is a full-time endeavor as job seekers need a lot of time to find and new job and having a job might prevent them for actually seeking a new job.

At the same time 1.64 million without jobs seems like a lot of people without jobs as some might not want to work, some might be looking for work but can't find the right job for them and or there might be other reasons they are not working such as illness or other factors.

For a long time it was almost unheard of that that workers in Japan were dismissed but the article doesn't indicate what the workers were dismissed for such companies re-structuring, companies having to reduce their workforce and or the normal business actions related to workers being dismissed.

For those new people seeking jobs it could be university graduates who still don't have a job, it could be young married women who need to work to help their family with paying the bills and or any number of new workers trying to enter the workforce in Japan.

The fact that there were 122 jobs available for every 100 job seekers needs to be taken with a grain of salt, meaning not all of the 122 jobs are good Japanese name-brand large company jobs as some jobs might be jobs that pay less and unfortunately small and mid-size company jobs don't pay the same as large company jobs.

Even though there were 9.8 percent more jobs in the education sector, just what kind of jobs were being offered. Were they jobs at after-school academies that offer lessons for those in middle school and high school. Were the jobs in academies related to teaching English or other subjects?

The information and technology sector should see a lot of growth in the future with more companies trying to innovate and upgrade as needed for 21st century tech skills.

Its very possible that the hotel and restaurant industry have been hit by increased labor costs, increased raw material costs not to mention energy cost increases, and they might even had to lay-off some workers due to higher costs.

But again, the article doesn't say where the job openings decreased in Japan as foreign tourists entering Japan is at a record high which might mean hotels, at least in the major metro areas of Japan, might actually increased their workers.

As far as the wholesale and retail sector is concerned, these are service type jobs which means they usually have very thin profit margins to work with and they can't afford large increases in energy costs, wage increases, or even raw-materials costs.

Some of these companies in the hotel and restaurant sector and in the wholesale and retail sector might actually be cutting back their normal staff and not hiring new workers and moving to more automated services to save on costs.

Have a nice day!