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Local governments employing more temp workers, average wages down, job offers per applicant shrinking

October 2, 2008
By Ken Worsley


On Monday, Breitbart reported that as of June 1, 27.8% of Japan’s local government workforce was comprised of temporary and part-time workers. The report cited data published by the national union of local government workers on the same day.

Of those temporary and part-time workers, about 80% earn less than 2 million yen per year. According to the union, local governments have “cut staff quotas and personnel outlays and…overcome them with labor forces recruited at low cost to meet the total level of services they have to provide.”

According to data released today by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, average wages in Japan fell 0.3% in August against a year earlier, with the average wage (including overtime and bonuses) coming to 283,473 yen.

According to the ministry, companies are cutting back on the amount of overtime allowed (-6.9% from a year earlier), and summer bonuses were down 9.8%. Clearly, firms are also trying to cut on personnel costs by hiring less; on Tuesday the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that unemployment had hit 4.2 in August, the highest figure seen since May 2006. In addition, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that there were about 86 job offers per 100 seekers in August. The number of people looking for work has now exceeded job offers for nine consecutive months.

The only bright spot in all this was what was reported here yesterday: that at households where the head of the household is a salaried worker, average household income was up 1.9% in September.

Although third quarter GDP estimates are not due until mid-November, it seems difficult to imagine consumer spending being in a position to contribute growth to July-September GDP figures, let alone make up for the expected furthering of the slowdown in export growth.

Filed Under Business, Labor and Wages 

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One Response to “Local governments employing more temp workers, average wages down, job offers per applicant shrinking”

  1. japannewsjunkie.com on October 2nd, 2008 10:57 pm

    Local governments employing more temp workers, average wages down, job offers per applicant shrinking…

    According to the national union of local government workers, 27.8% of Japan’s local government workforce was comprised of temporary and part-time workers as of June 1. Of those temporary and part-time workers, about 80% earn less than 2 million yen p…

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