Nikkei: Winter bonuses to fall 2.9%

November 8, 2008
By Ken Worsley

Back on October 24, we reported on a Keidanren survey that predicted winter bonuses in Japan would fall for the first time since 2002, though the decline was only registered at 0.03%. Today, the Nikkei published the results of forecasts by six private-sector research firms that showed the average winter bonus falling 2.9% to 405,378 yen. This would mark the fourth consecutive fall for bonuses in Japan when summer bonuses are included (the methodology of the Nikkei survey must differ substantially from Keidanren’s - the numbers come nowhere close to matching in these two estimates).

To further muddle the numbers, while the Nikkei predicts the average bonus to be down 2.9%, total bonuses are expected to be at 15.8 trillion yen, down 2.1% from last year, while the number of workers receiving bonuses is expected to rise 0.9%.

Filed Under Business, Labor and Wages