Why is Japan's unemployment rate so low

The unemployment rate is the percent of … However, the fallout has been much more severe in some countries than others, and nowhere is that more apparent than in unemployment figures in the United States and Japan.The U.S. jobless rate skyrocketed in the past three months, peaking at nearly 15 percent in April and standing at 13.3 percent in May. “During bad times, companies refrain from firing redundant workers by using retained earnings accumulated during good times, so that people can have secure jobs.”There are also strong social expectations that Japanese companies will retain workers. Soup Stock Tokyo made up the difference for Ms. Nagata and her co-workers by taking advantage of government subsidies and no-interest loans, part of a stimulus package aimed at softening the coronavirus’s economic damage.For a little over a month, Ms. Nagata largely stayed home, participating in daily half-hour virtual meetings aimed at preparing for a return to business. But … Japan’s unemployment rate fell to 2.4 percent in January, the lowest in over 24 years, and job availability remained at a four-decade high, government data showed Friday. But to find out if this is really happening, would have to look in the productivity statistics, and I am too busy to go do that. The rest comes down to a fundamental divergence in attitudes and policies toward labor.In the United States, “when the economy gets bad, people get laid off one after the other, and the unemployment rate shoots up,” said Tomohisa Ishikawa, director of the Macro Economic Research Center at the Japan Research Institute.

During the 2008 financial crash, these workers, who currently account for about 40 percent of the work force, were the first to lose their jobs. But she is quick to acknowledge that her situation could be worse.So far, the evidence seems to show it does. Noah, you should really be spending your procrastination time playing tower defense games, rather than writing blog entries. As I've recently written, the Fed has consistently been too pessimistic about how far unemployment will far.The unemployment rate is 4.1% and still …

But more than half are irregular workers.“Females are always sacrificed in these situations,” said Ayako Fujita, an economic analyst at J.P. Morgan. Helping to explain why unemployment is so low, there’s also a scarcity of Japanese workers with the jobs-to-applicants ratio — simply measuring the number of … Even now, some companies are having difficulty finding workers, with more than 120 job openings for every 100 job seekers nationwide in April.But those differences account for only part of the gap. More foreigners working on contracts. But for Japanese employers, “laying people off is difficult both psychologically and practically.”Companies in Japan are more likely than their American counterparts to prioritize employees’ interests over those of shareholders, focusing on the sustainability of their business rather than maximizing growth, said Naohiko Baba, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs.“During good times, companies accumulate profits on their balance sheets by restricting rises in worker’s salaries,” Mr. Baba said. Of course I would hasten to point out that this also reduces any opportunity for domestic demand growth given their demographic circumstances.I want to "Like" Claudia's comment.

It's in line with Japan's expanding economy," said Societe General Securities chief economist Takuji Aida.

The low rate is not from an unusually high job-finding rate out of unemployment but, rather, an unusually low rate at which people enter unemployment. Underemployed and people working in service jobs that are dead end, is more like the majority.

She used the time to care for her two children, who were home from school.The company used the time to shift its business toward a delivery model and develop new products, like packaged soups and curries, aimed at a post-coronavirus world in which customers may eat out less.In mid-May, just before the government lifted the state of emergency, Ms. Nagata returned to work.Not everyone has been as fortunate. This is not a puzzle to me.

The thought that this may be happening occurred to me as I observed the massive armies of rent-a-cops thronging the streets of Tokyo and Osaka on my most recent visit. United States Department of Labor "International Unemployment Rates and Employment Indexes, Seasonally Adjusted, 2009-2013"People say that Japan has been experiencing a long recession, called "the lost twenty years", since 1992. The Japan data suggests that wage stickiness might not be as significant an issue there as it is here. The low entry rate reflects a long-run downward trend likely due to population aging, better job matches, and other structural factors. The BLs does not agree with Taira's conclusion. The unemployment rate has ticked up just two-tenths of a percentage point since February, to 2.6 percent. It may also make it more difficult for businesses to retool their work forces to adapt to changing conditions, making them less productive and hurting their ability to compete in the global economy.In recent decades, companies have tried to gain some flexibility by increasing the ranks of “non-regular workers” — employees on short-term contracts who work for lower wages and have less job security.In times of crisis, such workers have been let go in large numbers. TOKYO — When the coronavirus hit Japan, Mari Nagata, a single mother who works in a restaurant, had a lot of worries. TOKYO • Japan's unemployment rate hit a 25-year low in January and job availability stayed at a two-decade high, government data showed yesterday, offering policymakers hope that a … (Note: One place that falling real wages will show up is if companies or governments that feel a social obligation to maintain employment levels will shift regular employees to low-wage make-work jobs in a recession.