Japanese employers are scrambling to find staff, unemployment is at its lowest level in more than two decades and the labour market is tighter than it was during Japan’s booming bubble economy years. / AFP PHOTO / Toru YAMANAKA /
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan’s jobless rate edged up to 2.5 percent in July, official data showed Friday, with the number of available positions far outstripping job hunters as the country’s labour shortage persists.
The July data from Japan’s internal affairs ministry is only a marginal increase from the 2.4 percent rate in June and 2.2 percent in May, a 26-year low.
And the jobs-to-applicants ratio in July was the highest in 44 years, with 163 job offers going for every 100 job hunters, a separate survey by the labour ministry said.
Japan’s unemployment rate has been declining since about 2010 when the rate stood around five percent.
The government has proposed slightly loosening tight restrictions on foreign workers to help ease labour shortages.
A separate survey by the trade and industry ministry released Friday showed factory output edged down 0.1 percent in July compared with the previous month.
It was the third straight monthly decline.
The survey predicts factory output will edge up in August and September, but the ministry revised down its economic assessment, saying “even though production is gradually recovering, weakness is seen” in some sectors of industrial production.
The figures come with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who came to power in late 2012, widely expected to win a third term as party leader in an election next month.
He is likely to run on his “Abenomics” economic policy intended to stimulate growth, and a win could see his term as prime minister run through 2021.
Abenomics, which includes massive monetary easing and painful structural reforms, saw initial success with a boost in stock prices, but some analysts say its impact on the economy has been limited by the slow pace of reform.
© Agence France-Presse