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Unemployment up for second straight month in September; number of female workers down; manufacturing, construction and medical industires see drops

October 30, 2007
By Ken Worsley


After falling for eleven straight months and hitting its lowest point in a decade in July, Japan’s unemployment inched up 0.2% to 3.8% in August. According to data released today by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, that 0.2% rise in Japan’s unemployment rate was replicated in September, which means the unemployment rate now stands at 4.0%.

The number of people without jobs fell by 110,000 from a year earlier to 2.69 million, showing a decrease for the 22nd consecutive month. The number of people employed stood at 64.22 million in September, which was down by 90,000 from last year. That was he first decline in the number of people employed in a year.

Speaking at a press conference today, State Minister in charge of Economic and Fiscal Policy Hiroko Ota said that there is no reason to take it the increase in unemployment seriously, because industrial production is picking up.

Looking into the data a bit, we see that the number of employed males stood at 37.61 million (up by 110,000 from a year earlier). On the other hand, the number of female workers slid by 210,000 to 26.60 million. The unemployment rate for men increased from 3.8% to 4.0% and the unemployment rate for women increased by 0.3% - from 3.7% to 4.0%.

It thus appears as though a sudden increase in the number of women being unemployed is behind the September statistics.

Broken down by industry, although the number of workers increased within the retail, wholesale, food and lodging industries, it fell in all other sectors. The manufacturing, construction and medical industries saw noticeable reductions in the number of employees since last year. We should keep in mind that the number of employees at Japan’s manufacturers actually increased in 2006 for the first time in 15 years.

Filed Under Economic Reports, Unemployment 

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Comments

6 Responses to “Unemployment up for second straight month in September; number of female workers down; manufacturing, construction and medical industires see drops”

  1. Ivan Kitov on October 31st, 2007 7:03 pm

    I have compiled some recent findings about past and future evolution of
    inflation and unemployment in Japan in a paper:

    Exact prediction of inflation and unemployment in Japan

    Abstract

    Past and future evolution of inflation, p(t), and unemployment, UE(t), in Japan is modeled. Both variables are represented as linear functions of the change rate of labor force level. These models provide an accurate description for disinflation in the 1990s and deflationary period in the 2000s. In Japan, there exists a statistically reliable (R2=0.68) Phillips curve. This Phillips curve is characterized by a negative relation between inflation and unemployment and their synchronous evolution: UE(t) = -0.94p(t) 0.045. Effectively, growing unemployment has resulted in decreasing inflation since 1982. A linear and lagged generalized relationship between inflation, unemployment and labor force has been also obtained for Japan: p(t) = 2.8*dLF(t)/LF(t) 0.9*UE(t) - 0.0392. Labor force projections allow a reliable prediction of inflation and unemployment in Japan: CPI inflation will be negative (between -0.5% and -1% per year) during the next 40 years. Unemployment will increase from 4.0% in 2010 to 5.3% in 2050

    To download:

    http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/5464/01/MPRA_paper_5464.pdf

  2. J on November 2nd, 2007 4:20 am

    The way the Japanese calculate unemployment is quite
    different from America. Every wonder why everything
    is crowded here in the middle of the day? Haven’t
    you thought, “doesn’t anybody work?” How the hell is
    unemployment around 4-5%? It is due to the Japanese
    calculations that do not include some “freeters” and all
    housewives. Should be closer to 15-20%

  3. Ivan Kitov on November 2nd, 2007 7:41 pm

    J

    Not sure that you are right.
    For your convenience, check
    http://www.bls.gov/fls/flscomparelf.htm
    where US and national measures of unemployment rates and some othe labor force
    variables are available

  4. Ken Worsley on November 2nd, 2007 7:43 pm

    J, as far as I know, housewives don’t and shouldn’t count in the unemployment figures because they are not actively seeking work.

  5. J on November 2nd, 2007 8:31 pm

    The figures don’t say how they are come by, calculated, do they?

  6. J on November 2nd, 2007 8:42 pm

    I found it. I guess it is a matter of opinion. I think every
    person able to work over whatever age (16) in this case should
    be counted. Like you said above, “actively seeking work” is also
    important. In the U.S these people are left out if they are
    not actively seeking work and thier unemployment runs out. Plus
    the survey uses less than 15 hours, another point that can be
    contended. These figures do not hold too much water the more
    you look into them. Take for instance the fact that the Japanese
    one is done by “survey”…

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